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ILLUSTRATED 


NEW    rORK    •    FREDERICK    A. 
STOKES    COMPANY  •  Publishers 


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Copyright^  igoo^  by 
Frederick  A.  Stokes  Company 


Tht  Univtrsitr  Prtss 
Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


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ILLUSTRATIONS 


Miss  Ellen  Terry  (Photogravure)     Frontispiece 

As  Portia,  in  "  The  Merchant  of  Page 

Venice  " 6 

As  Olivia,  in  "  Olivia  "    .     .     .     .  12 

As  Ophelia,  in  "  Hamlet"    ...  18 
As   Queen    Henriette    Maria,  in 

"  Charles  the  First  "...  24 

As  Camma,  in  "  The  Cup  "...  30 

As  Margaret,  in  "  Faust  "...  36 

As  Juliet,  in  "  Romeo  and  Juliet  "  42 

As  Fair  Rosamund,  in  "  Becket  "  .  48 

As  Imogen,  IN  "Cymbeline"       .     .  54 

As  Viola,  in  "  Tv^^elfth  Night  "    .  60 

As   Ellaline,   in    "The    Amber 

Heart" 66 

As  Beatrice,  in  "  Much  Ado  About 

Nothing" 72 

As  Cordelia,  in  "  King  Lear  "  .     .  78 

As  Lady  Macbeth,  in  "  Macbeth  "  84 

As  Fair  Rosamund,  in  "Becket"   .  90 


ILL  U  Sr  RA  T I O  N  S 

As    Queen    Katherine,    in   "King  page 

Henry  VIIL'* 96 

As  Guinevere,  in  "King  Arthur  "  102 

As  Lucy  Ashton,  in  "  Ravenswood  "  108 

As     loLANTHE,     IN     "  KiNG     ReNE'S 

Daughter" 114 

As    Catharine     Duval,   in   "The 

Dead  Heart" 120 

As   Nance   Oldfield,   in    "Nance 

Oldfield  " 126 

As   Catharine    Huebscher,  in 

"Madame  Sans  Gene"  .  ,  132 
As    Catharine    Duval,   in    "The 

Dead  Heart" 138 

As   Clarisse   de    Maulucon,  in 

"Robespierre" 144 


ELLEN  TERRT 

AN    APPRECIATION 

IF  it  be  a  gift  to  think  of  lovely- 
girls  and  women  whom  we 
have  worshipped  in  early  life, 
only  in  their  first  youth,  only  in 
the  pure  charm  of  their  earliest 
influence,  only  when  they  were 
"  queen  roses  of  the  rosebuds,  gar- 
dens of  girls''  —  then  this  happily 
is  a  gift  that  I  for  one  possess,  and 
which  I  studiously  endeavour  to 
cultivate. 

Women  who  have  inspired  men 
with  love,  or  loyalty,  or  homage, 
or  respect,  should  never  be  allowed 
to  grow  old. 


ELLEN     T  E  R  RT 

Why  is  it  that  we  remember  the 
impressions  of  yesterday  far  more 
distinctly  and  vividly  than  the 
casual  excitements  of  to-day  ?  The 
page  of  childhood  is  bright  and 
clear ;  the  manuscript  of  middle 
or  old  age  is  blurred,  blotted,  and 
indistinct.  My  first  play,  my  first 
Hamlet,  my  first  Juliet,  my  first 
Sir  Peter  and  Lady  Teazle,  are  cut 
like  cameos  on  the  memory.  But 
with  ease  I  forget  the  name  of  the 
play,  of  the  actor  and  the  actress 
that  I  saw  last  week.  I  have  to 
invent  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  a 
*'memoria  technica''  to  recall  them. 
I  close  my  eyes  as  in  a  reverie,  and 
am    in    fancy    escorted    miles    and 


MISS  ELLEN  TERRY 
As  Opht'lia  in  "  Hamlet ' 


ELLEN    TER  RT 

miles  back  on  the  tempestuous 
journey  of  life. 

I  am  in  a  humble  dancing  Academy 
in  a  North  London  suburb,  pre- 
sided over  by  an  ugly  little  man 
bearing:  the  unromantic  name  of 
"Jenks."  He  wears  pumps  with 
bows,  and  he  plays  to  the  children 
on  a  diminutive  little  fiddle  known 
in  those  days  as  a  "  kit."  But  the 
then  grassy  and  flowered  suburb, 
the  mean  little  Academy  fellow 
with  his  tiny  fiddle,  and  all  the 
details  of  an  unaccustomed  scene 
sink  into  insignificance  beside  the 
still  vivid  picture  in  my  mind  of  a 
fair-haired  child  with  a  cream- 
white  face,  sitting  on  an  uncomfor- 


ELLEN     TERRT 

table  bench  in  a  blue  silk  frock, 
dangling  her  little  legs  encased  in 
white  silk  stockings  ending  in 
white  sandalled  shoes.  How  I 
worshipped  that  little  Elsie ;  what 
a  thrill  it  gave  me  when  I  was 
allowed  to  choose  her  as  a  partner 
in  baby  valse  or  childish  cotillon  ; 
how  my  heart  seemed  to  break 
when  I  was  dragged  home  ;  how 
I  seldom  slept  at  night  and  kept 
my  devotion  religiously  to  myself, 
for  fear  that  the  purity  of  my  love 
might  be  soiled  by  ridicule  or  rib- 
aldry; how  it  all  ended  in  a  dream, 
as  dreamlike  it  began  !  Well,  let 
me  dream  again  !  It  is  a  child's 
party   on    Twelfth   Night,   for   we 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

had  Twelfth  Night  parties  in  those 
merry  days,  and  we  had  a  Twelfth 
Cake,  and  drew  **  characters  "  who 
should  be  King  and  Queen  of  the 
Feast  on  that  annual  festivity. 
I  was  in  luck's  way  on  that  occa- 
sion, for,  either  by  chance,  or  man- 
agement of  an  affectionate  mother, 
I  was  selected  King,  and  my  Queen 
was  another  angel  with  corn-col- 
oured hair.  She  was  to  me  as 
Robertson  says,  "  like  china  with 
a  soul  in  it,''  I  loved  her  at  a 
distance  when  I  was  a  surpliced 
chorister  in  church,  and  I  thought 
her  an  angel,  because  she  resembled 
one  in  the  painted  window  over 
the    altar,    and    on    this    particular 


ELLEN    TER  RT 

angel  I  bestowed  all  the  wealth  of 
my  youthful  imagination.  But  I 
fear  she  was  a  very  material  angel ; 
for  when  we  were  out  of  church, 
and  away  from  anthems  and  Kyrie 
Eleisons  and  chants  and  hymns,  and 
found  ourselves  side  by  side  as 
Twelfth  Night  King  and  Queen, 
I  remember  as  distinctly  as  if  it 
were  yesterday,  that  during  the  very 
darkest  scene  of  a  magic  lantern 
show  I  felt  a  tiny  pair  of  arms 
around  my  neck,  and  heard  a  w^his- 
per,  "  Kiss  me,  my  King,  you  may, 
you  must  !  '* 

Fancy  leads  me  to  Ilford  in  Essex, 
then,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  in  the 
heart  of  the  country,  and  to  a  huge 


MISS  ELLKN  TERRY 
As  Portia  in  "Tlie  Merchant  ol  Venice." 


ELLEN    TERRT 


Georgian  house  with  a  romantic 
walled  garden  where  an  adorable 
girl  of  eighteen  or  nineteen  took 
me  for  her  child  lover,  and  sang 
me  songs  in  a  quiet  corner  of  an 
old  deserted  drawing-room,  and 
made  me  blush  at  table  when  she 
looked  at  me  ;  and  in  the  gloam- 
ing when  all  was  still  I  heard 
the  "  frou  frou  "  of  her  dress,  and 
her  entry  in  the  half  dark  to  bend 
over  my  cot  and  "  kiss  me  good- 
night." 

Again  I  am  at  Bournemouth  when 
it  consisted  of  one  row  of  houses,  a 
High  Church,  and  a  deserted  beach, 
carving  the  name  of  "  Alice  "  on 
the    trees     in    Westover    Gardens  ; 


ELLEN     TERR  T 

and  I  am  at  Stony  Stratford  sit- 
ting under  the  apple  blossoms  in  a 
garden  full  of  lilacs  and  lavender, 
listening  to  the  tender  voice  of  a 
"Belle  Marie;"  and  I  am  in  the 
blue-bell  woods  of  Somersetshire, 
which  seemed  "  the  heavens  up- 
breaking  through  the  earth,*'  when 
in  the  divine  company  of  Geraldine. 
And  so  on,  and  so  on,  and  so  on. 
And  then  I  awaken  from  these 
reveries  and  dreams,  and  say  to  my- 
self, "  Do  you  appreciate  the  solemn 
fact  that  all  these  idols  of  your 
boyhood  and  your  youth,  in  the 
lovely  primrose  and  King-cup  days, 
are  old  women  now,  verging  upon 
sixty  years  ?  " 


ELLEN     TERRT 


I  cannot  believe  it.  I  refuse  to 
recognise  the  fact.  To  me  they 
will  ever  be  what  they  always  were, 
young,  and  sweet,  and  tender,  and 
pure,  and  beautiful. 
In  fancy  Ellen  Terry  must  have 
been  the  love  dream  of  many  men 
of  susceptibility  and  strong  imagina- 
tion, for  in  her  days  of  girlhood  she 
was  distinctly  the  most  romantic- 
looking  creature  I  had  ever  seen. 
Of  course  I  saw  her  as  a  child  when 
she  was  in  Charles  Kean's  company 
at  the  Princess's  in  Oxford  Street, 
with  her  sister  Kate  and  her  good 
old  father  "  Ben  Terry,''  busy  be- 
hind the  scenes,  the  factotum  of  the 
manager  and  manageress,  for  Mrs, 


ELLEN    TERRT 


Charles  Kean  was  quite  as  impor- 
tant a  person  as  her  husband. 
I  can  well  recall  Ellen  Terry  with 
the  child's  "  go-cart  "  as  Mamillius 
in  the  Winter's  Tale,  I  must  have 
seen  her  many  a  time  at  the  old 
Bristol  Theatre  in  the  glorious  days 
of  the  elder  Chute,  for  all  my  rel- 
atives lived  at  Clifton,  and  I  was 
there  every  year  in  the  playgoing 
days  of  the  Tom  Cannings  and 
Fuidges  and  Fords  and  Beloes  and 
Stocks  and  Fripps,  who  scarcely 
ever  missed  a  premiere  when  the 
splendid  and  well  organised  com- 
pany contained  such  names  as  Marie 
Wilton  and  Kate  as  well  as  Ellen 
Terry  and  Henrietta  Hodson,  and 


lO 


ELLEN    TE  R  RT 

Madge  Robertson  and  the  brothers 
Rignold,  George  and  William,  and 
Arthur  Stirling,  and  W.  H.  Vernon 
and  Wood  and  Fosbroke,  who  alone 
I  think  remained  true  to  the  Bris- 
tol Chute  allegiance. 
The  impressions  left  on  the  mind 
by  what  were  more  or  less  children 
actresses  are  never  very  vivid.  In 
those  Bristol  days  they  were  all 
very  clever  and  remarkably  well 
trained.  All  these  at  any  rate  illus- 
trate the  old  adage  that  "practice 
makes  perfect,''  for  they  one  and 
all  rose  to  considerable  fame  in 
their  profession.  They  were  nearly 
all  children  of  actors  and  actresses, 
humble  and   honest  folk   who   did 

1 1 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 


not  value  themselves  so  highly  or 
give  themselves  such  airs  and  graces 
as  their  brothers  and  sisters  do  in 
these  days.  They  v^orked  and 
worked  hard,  I  can  tell  you,  but 
their  heads  were  well  screwed  on. 
Two  passages  from  Much  Ado 
About  Nothing  have  always  seemed 
to  me  to  convey  exactly  the  idea  of 
Ellen  Terry,  both  in  youth  and 
womanhood ;  they  suggest  that 
extraordinary  "  charm  "  that  the 
actress  recently  in  America  was 
unable  to  define,  though  I,  for  one, 
could  have  embodied  it  in  two 
words,  *' Ellen  Terry.'' 
The  passages  from  Shakespeare  to 
which  I  allude  are  these, 


I  2 


MISS  ELLEN  ItKKV 
As  Olivia  in  "  (Jlivia  ' 


ELLEN     T  E  RRT 


Bon  Pedro.  Will  you  have  me,  lady  ? 
Beatrice,  No,  my  lord,  unless  I  might 
have  another  for  working-days  ;  your 
grace  is  too  costly  to  wear  every  day. 
But  I  beseech  your  grace,  pardon  me ; 
I  was  born  to  speak  all  mirth  and  no 
matter. 

Don  Pedro.  Your  silence  most  offends 
me,  and  to  be  merry  best  becomes  you  ; 
for,  out  of  question,  you  were  born  in  a 
merry  hour. 

Beatrice.  No  sure,  my  lord,  my  mother 
cried  ;  but  then  there  was  a  star  danced, 
and  under  that  I  was  born !  Cousins, 
God  give  you  joy  ! 

Now  if  William  Shakespeare  had 
had  the  model  before  him  he  could 
not  have  drawn  a  more  perfect 
picture  of  Ellen   Terry  than    this. 

13 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 


She  was  indeed  "  born  to  speak  all 
mirth  and  no  matter/*  If  ever 
lovely  woman  was  **  born  in  a  merry 
hour,"  it  was  Ellen  Terry,  for  she 
can  scarcely  be  serious  for  an  hour 
together,  and  is  never  happier  than 
when  she  is  playing  some  practi- 
cal joke  on  her  more  serious 
companions. 

And  who  whilst  life  lasts  can  ever 
forget  how  the  actress  in  the  char- 
acter of  Beatrice,  one  of  the  most 
enchanting  personations  of  my  time, 
one  of  the  most  exquisite  realisa- 
tions of  a  Shakespearian  heroine 
that  any  of  us  have  ever  seen,  spoke 
those  words,  —  "  No  sure,  my  lord, 
my  mother  cried  ;   but  then  there 


ELLEN    TERRT 

was  a  star  danced,  and  under  that  I 
was  born." 

Why,  it  was  not  Beatrice  but 
Ellen  Terry,  personated  by  Ellen 
Terry.  It  was  a  revelation. 
The  other  quotation  from  the  same 
play,  Much  Ado  About  Nothings 
is  Hero's  description  of  her  cousin, 
Beatrice,  which  is  simply  Ellen 
Terry  in  action. 

"  For  look  where  Beatrice,  like  a  lap- 
wing, runs 
Close  by  the  ground,  to  hear  our  con- 
ference." 

Is  this  not  an  exact  description  of 
the  Ellen  Terry  movement  which 
others  so  ludicrously  attempt  to  imi- 
tate?    She   does    not    run    off  the 

15 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

stage,  or  skip  up  the  steps  of  an 
Italian  garden.  She  simply  floats 
seemingly  on  the  air.  A  more 
exquisitely  graceful  movement  has 
never  been  seen  from  any  other 
actress.  But  Shakespeare  has  hit 
it.  She  like  "  a  lapwing  runs  close 
by  the  ground."  It  is  the  skim- 
ming of  a  bird  in  the  air.  Ellen 
Terry  did  that  lapwing  run  to  per- 
fection when  she  was  sent  to  invite 
Benedick  to  dinner,  and  left  him 
with  the  famous  chaffing  rejoinder, 

"  You  have  no  stomach,  signior :  fare 
you  well." 

And  up  the  marble  steps  ran  the 
lapwing. 

i6 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

But  before  this  merry  lapwing  pe- 
riod of  Ellen  Terry's  art,  there  was 
another  and,  to  my  mind,  almost  a 
more  enchanting  one.  Years  be- 
fore she  played  Beatrice  at  the 
Lyceum,  she  had  enacted  Hero  at 
the  Haymarket. 

I  think  that  when  Ellen  Terry  first 
appeared  at  the  Haymarket  after 
her  baby  performances  under  the 
Keans  at  the  Princess's  Theatre, 
and  her  school-girl  exercises  at 
Bristol  under  good  old  Chute,  —  a 
warm  upholder  of  Macready  and 
the  classical  school,  — I  never  saw  a 
more  enchanting  and  ideal  creature. 
She  was  a  poem  that  lived  and 
breathed,  and  suggested   to  us   the 

17 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

girl  heroines  that  we  most  adored 
in  poetry  and  the  fine  arts  generally. 
Later  on,  as  we  all  know,  Ellen 
Terry  played  Queen  Guinevere  ;  but 
at  this  period  she  was  "  Elaine  the 
fair,  Elaine  the  loveable,  Elaine  the 
Lily  Maid  of  Astolat."  She  was 
Vivien  with  her  mad  girlish  pranks. 
She  might  have  sat  for  Rapunzel 
in  that  earliest  book  of  Morris, 
The  Defence  of  Guinevere,  We 
,  pictured  her  as  the  luckless  woman 
in  that  lovely  but  comparatively 
unknown  poem.  The  Haystack  in 
the  Floods.  Most  of  our  favourite 
queens  in  verse  were  made  realities 
by  Ellen  Terry.  I  saw  her  as  the 
"Gardener's  Daughter."    Again  and 

i8 


ELLEN    TE  R  RT 

again  I  saw  her  as  I  read  and  re- 
read Tennyson's  Princess.  She  was 
the  Porphyria  of  Robert  Browning, 
and  surely  one  of  the  crowned 
queens  in  the  Morte  d' Arthur. 
I  wish  I  could  paint  with  pen  an 
even  vague  suggestion  of  this  en- 
chanting personality,  tall,  fair,  wil- 
lowy, with  hair  like  spun  gold,  a 
faultless  complexion,  the  very  poetry 
of  movement,  with  that  wonderful 
deep-toned  voice  that  has  a  heart- 
throb in  it. 

What  wonder  that  when  painters 
and  poets  saw  Ellen  Terry  play 
Hero  they  raved  about  her!  We 
were  then  in  what  I  may  call  the 
second  Pre-Raffaelite  movement  in 

19 


ELLEN     TERR  T 

art.  Millais  and  Holman  Hunt 
and  Madox  Brown  and  Charles 
Collins  and  their  companions  be- 
longed to  a  former  age.  Our  en- 
thusiasms were  now  devoted  to  the 
Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti  set,  of  which 
Arthur  Hughes,  Frederick  Sandys, 
and  others  were  prominent  mem- 
bers. The  text-book  in  art  that 
we  followed  was  a  weekly  illus- 
trated periodical,  "  Once  a  Week," 
that  cultivated  what  I  may  call 
modern  mediasvalism,  and  we 
seemed  to  see  Ellen  Terry's  face, 
or  something  like  it,  on  almost 
every  page.  It  has  been  the  regret 
of  my  life  that  I  never  preserved 
those  early  illustrated  numbers  of 

20 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

"  Once  a  Week  "  when  it  was  edited 
by  Lucas  and  Edward  Walford. 
I  had  special  advantages  for  the 
study  and  culture  of  work  of  the 
Rossetti  school ;  for  very  early  in 
life  I  was  a  member  of  the  Arundel 
Club,  held  in  an  old-world  house 
at  the  bottom  of  Salisbury  Street,  in 
the  Strand,  long  since  destroyed,  — 
a  club  of  literary  Bohemians  whose 
walls  were  hung  with  priceless  pic- 
tures and  engravings  collected  by 
the  lifelong  friend  of  Rossetti  and 
Sandys,  John  Anderson  Rose,  an 
art-loving  solicitor. 
Small  wonder  then  that  such  a  face 
and  form  should  appeal  to  men  of 
imagination    and    culture.       Ellen 

21 


ELLEN    TE  R  RT 

Terry  at  that  time  was  the  most 
unreal  thing  to  look  at  that  I  ever 
beheld.  When  she  had  done  sug- 
gesting Tennyson  and  Browning 
and  William  Morris,  who  in  early 
life  had  painted  the  frescoes  in  the 
old  Union  at  Oxford,  and  was  now 
designing  wall-papers,  the  pome- 
granate pattern  —  blue,  green,  and 
yellow  —  and  the  daisy  pattern  for 
our  lifelong  delight,  this  mysteri- 
ous creature  galloped  off  with  our 
imaginations  to  German  mysticisms 
and  became  Undine,  or  the  idol  of 
Sintram  and  his  companions,  and 
the  Shadowless  Man. 
Of  this  particular  painter-set,  Arthur 
Lewis,  the  future  brother-in-law  of 


22 


ELLEN    TERRT 

Ellen,  was  a  kind  of  art  patron. 
He  was  an  artist  himself,  and  his 
bachelor  banquets  to  artists  and 
musicians  were  very  memorable 
functions  indeed,  in  the  early  six- 
ties. 

Through  his  good  offices,  he  created 
«  The  Wandering  Minstrels,"  and 
I  think  that  my  own  brother-in- 
law,  George  du  Maurier,  who  had 
just  commenced  his  brilliant  career 
as  an  artist  on  "  Punch,"  "  Once  a 
Week,"  the  "  Cornhill  Magazine," 
and  other  periodicals,  first  distin- 
guished himself  as  a  singer  and 
raconteur  at  the  well  remembered 
artistic  salon  at  Moray  Lodge, 
Campden  Hill. 


ELLEN    TERR  T 

In  the  artistic  world,  Ellen  Terry 
and  her  sister  Kate  had  another 
very  influential  godfather  in  Tom 
Taylor,  the  dramatist,  art  critic  for 
"  The  Times,'*  and  often  the  dra- 
matic critic  for  the  same  important 
paper  during  the  absence  of  John 
Oxenford.  This  amiable  gentle- 
man devoted  himself  heart  and  soul 
to  the  personal  interest  of  the  Terry 
girls  from  the  moment  he  discov- 
ered their  rare  and  unique  talent  at 
Bristol.  Never  did  two  clever  de- 
butantes have  a  more  loyal  or  de- 
voted friend. 

The  biographies  that  I  have  seen 
of  these  gifted  sisters  teem  with 
inaccuracies     of    an     extraordinary 

24 


MIFS  ELLEN  TERRY 
As  Queen  Henrietta  Maria  in  "  Charles  the  First' 


ELLEN    T  E  RRT 

kind.  One  glaring  one  I  may  be 
permitted  to  correct  here  in  con- 
nection with  the  early  fame  of  Kate 
Terry.  It  has  been  said  with  au- 
thority that  the  elder  sister,  Kate, 
came  to  London  straight  from 
Bristol,  and  was  engaged  by  Charles 
Fechter  for  his  first  managerial 
venture  at  the  Lyceum  Theatre. 
This  is  wholly  incorrect. 
As  I  happened  to  be  present  when 
Kate  Terry  made  her  first  astonish- 
ing London  success,  I  may  perhaps 
be  permitted  to  describe  it. 
It  was  at  the  St.  James  Theatre, 
when  managed  by  Miss  Ruth  Her- 
bert (Mrs.  Crabbe),  in  1862;  the 
same  theatre  in  which  later  on  in 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

1866  Henry  Irving  made  his  first 
London  success. 

It  was  probably  Tom  Taylor  who 
obtained  the  first  London  engage- 
ment for  Kate  Terry,  a  beautiful 
girl,  but  of  a  different  pattern  from 
her  sister  Ellen.  Kate  was  a  pure 
English  beauty  ;  Ellen,  as  I  have 
said  before,  was  ideal,  mystical,  and 
medieval. 

In  1862  Miss  Herbert  produced  at 
the  St.  James  a  version  of  Sardou's 
Nos  Intimes,  called  Friends  or  Foes,  the 
same  play  that  Charley  Stephenson 
and  your  humble  servant  turned  into 
Peril,  a  play  that  lives  on  the  stage  to- 
day, though  Horace  Wigan's  version 
has  long  since  been  forgotten. 

26 


ELLEN    TE  R  RT 

The  play  was  admirably  cast. 
George  Vining,  the  good  old  Frank 
Matthews,  husband  and  wife,  ad- 
mirable comedians ;  Fred  Dewar, 
who  afterwards  made  such  a  hit 
with  Patty  Oliver  at  the  little  Roy- 
alty ;  Fred  Charles,  the  ever-young, 
and  of  course  Miss  Herbert,  one  of 
the  loveliest  and  stateliest  women 
the  stage  has  ever  seen,  as  Mrs. 
Union,  the  tempted  wife.  A  small 
part  in  the  cast,  that  of  a  girl  in- 
genue, was  awarded  to  Kate  Terry. 
On  one  occasion  Miss  Herbert  fell 
ill,  and  her  understudy  for  the  great 
part  in  the  play,  Kate  Terry,  was 
warned  that  she  might  be  wanted 
in  the  emergency.      Faithful  Tom 


ELLEN     TER  R  T 

Taylor  was  warned  of  the  event, 
and  you  may  be  sure  he  was  pres- 
ent to  watch  the  progress  of  his 
young  protegee.  I  happened  to 
be  present  on  that  night  also,  for 
some  of  us  youngsters  at  the  Arun- 
del Club,  notably  two  persistent 
playgoers  and  Oxford  (Brasenose) 
chums,  Adams  Reilly  and  Charles 
J.  Stone,  were  enthusiasts  in  the 
Terry  cause. 

On  that  never-to-be-forgotten  night 
this  young  girl,  Kate  Terry,  made 
an  astounding  success.  Her  name 
was  scarcely  known ;  no  one  knew 
that  we  had  amongst  us  a  young 
actress  of  so  much  beauty,  talent, 
and,  what  was  more  wonderful  still, 

28 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

true  dramatic  power,  —  for  the 
temptation  scene  wants  acting  and 
not  the  kind  of  trifling  that  we 
see  in  these  modern  and  amateurish 
days. 

The  next  morning  Tom  Taylor,  in 
"  The  Times,"  let  himself  go,  and 
blew  the  trumpet  in  praise  of  the 
new  actress,  Kate  Terry.  Her 
fame  was  made  from  that  minute. 
She  never  turned  back. 
Her  grace,  beauty,  and  talent  at- 
tracted the  Baroness  Burdett  Coutts 
and  Fechter,  who  engaged  Kate 
Terry  for  Blanche  de  Nevers  in  his 
first  venture,  the  Duke's  Motto, 
She  was  the  heroine  in  Bel  Demonio 
and  other  Lyceum  productions. 

29 


ELLEN     TER  RT 

From  there  she  went  to  the  Olympic, 
where  she  was  the  art  comrade  of 
Henry  Neville  and  Charles  Cogh- 
lan  in  many  of  Tom^  Taylor's  plays. 
From  thence  she  went  to  the  Adel- 
phi,  to  help  Charles  Reade  and 
others,  and  there  took  her  farewell 
of  the  stage  on  her  marriage  to 
Arthur  Lewis.  In  recent  years  she 
returned,  however,  to  her  old  love, 
and  supported  her  clever  daughter 
under  the  management  of  her  old 
and  devoted  friend,  John  Hare. 
Homer  himself  did  not  enjoy  so 
many  disputed  birthplaces  as  Ellen 
Terry. 

**  Smyrna,    Chios,    Colophon,    Sal- 
amis,     Rhodes,     Argos,     Athena." 

30 


MISS  ELLF.N  TLRRY 
As  Camma  in  the  "Cup" 


ELLEN    TERRY 

We  all  remember  that  school-boy 
hexameter.  Homeric  students  may- 
settle  the  Homeric  birthplace  for 
themselves. 

Ellen  Terry  or  her  family  or  some- 
one who  ought  to  know  have  de- 
cided that  she  was  born  in  Coventry, 
the  famous  midland  city  of  Lady 
Go  diva. 

"  I  waited  for  the  train  at  Coventry ; 
I  hung  with  grooms  and  porters  on 

the  bridge, 
To  watch  the  three  tall   spires ;  and 

there  I  shaped 
The  city's  ancient  legend  into  this." 

The  last  Poet  Laureate  might 
have  added  a  Godiva  sequel  in 
Coventry's    second    heroine,   Ellen 

31 


ELLEN     T  ER  R  T 


Terry,  for  some  of  us  can  see  her 

too, 

".  .  .  looking  like  a  summer  moon 
Half-dipt  in  cloud :  .   .  . 
And  shower'd  the  rippled  ringlets  to 
her  knee." 

But  even  now  they  cannot  decide 
in  what  house  the  famous  actress 
of  the  future  was  born  or  where 
"her  mother  cried,"  and  that 
lucky  star  danced  over  the  "  three 
tall  spires."  One  would  have 
thought  that  somewhere  under 
those  same  Coventry  spires  was 
hidden  a  parish  register  which 
would  have  recorded  the  date  of 
birth,  the  place  and  parentage  of 
the  baby  Ellen,  "  Our  Nell  "  of  the 

32 


1 


ELLEN     T  E  RRT 


future.  The  Coventry  tradesmen 
still  battle  for  the  Ellen  Terry 
birthplace,  and  fiercely  struggle  for 
the  supremacy  of  fame. 

But  if  doubt  exists  concerning 
the  actual  house  in  Coventry,  to 
which  our  Nell  will  never  be  sent 
so  long  as  she  lives,  there  is  still 
greater  doubt  concerning  the  actual 
part  in  which  she  made  her  first 
appearance. 

I  think  that  the  playgoing  world 
is  more  interested  in  that,  than  in 
the  precise  room  where  Ellen  Terry 
was  born  in  a  midland  town,  when 
her  father,  Ben  Terry,  and  his  wife, 
who  gave  to  the  world  children  one 
and  all  of  such  remarkable  beauty 

3  33 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

and  talent,  were  on  a  wandering  tour 
in  the  early  forties. 
Beauty  and  comeliness  seem  to  be 
clustered  in  theatrical  families. 
The  Rignolds,  the  Robertsons,  and 
the  Standings  are  striking  exam- 
ples of  hereditary  beauty  and  talent 
combined. 

But  they  all  pale  before  the  Terrys. 
Think  of  it,  Kate,  with  her  lovely 
figure  and  comely  features  ;  Ellen, 
with  her  quite  indescribable  charm; 
Marion,  with  a  something  in  her  \ 
deeper,  more  tender,  and  more  fem- 
inine than  either  of  them  ;  Flor- 
ence, who  became  lovelier  as  a 
woman  than  as  a  girl ;  and  the 
brothers,    Fred   and    Charles,   both 

34 


ELLEN     T  ERRT^ 

splendid  specimens  of  the  athletic 
Englishman. 

This  is  a  family  of  which  any 
parents  might  be  proud,  and  proud 
they  were  of  their  gifted  children, 
for  they  never  missed  a  first  night 
when  one  or  other  of  them  had 
to  ''  face  the  music/* 
That  this  sweet  home  feeling  was 
mutual  and  reciprocal  is  proved 
by  a  letter  written  to  me  by 
Ellen  Terry  on  the  6th  of  March 
1892,  which  I  much  value  and 
cherish.  It  shows  not  only  her 
own  kind  and  affectionate  heart, 
but  that  of  her  brothers  and  sisters 
also. 


35 


^ 

tSk  .^p  ^£  52  jSx  S<  S*  ^£  ^£  wx 

ELLEN 

T  ERRT 

n 

22  Barkeston  Gardens,  Earl*s  Court,  S.W. 

6th  March,  1892. 

It  was  you,  I  feel  sure,  who  wrote  the 
tender  words  about  our  pretty,  sweet 
mother,  and  I  should  like  to  be  able 
to  tell  you  how  much  we  all  loved 
them,  as  we  read  them,  and  always 
shall  love  them,  only  I  can't  speak  as 
I  feel. 

Thank  you  again  and  again.  There  is 
no  one  left  in  the  world  now  who  is 
just  the  same  as  she  was. 

Yours  affectionately, 

Ellen  Terry. 

And  now  as  to  the  disputed  point 
about  Ellen  Terry's  first  appearance 
on  any  stage.  On  September  21, 
1887,  when  I  was  editing  the 
**  Theatre    Magazine,''    I    received 

36 


MISS  ELLEM  TERRY 
As  Margaret  in  "  Faust  " 


ELLEN     TERRT 

the   following   memorandum    from 
a  very  learned   theatrical  authority 
on    the    subject    of    Ellen    Terry's 
baby  efforts  as  an  actress. 
It  was  as  follows  :  — 

MISS    ELLEN    TERRY'S    FIRST   APPEAR- 
ANCE   ON    THE    STAGE. 

In  "The  Dramatic  List"  (1880)  Mr. 
Pascoe  in  his  notice  of  Miss  Ellen 
Terry,  after  stating  that  she  was  born 
in  18485  mentions  that  she  made  her 
first  appearance  on  the  Stage  as  Mamil- 
lius  in  ^he  Winter  s  T^ale^  at  the  Prin- 
cess's, April  28,  1856.  This  notice 
had  been  submitted  to  Miss  Terry, 
and  approved  of  by  her  for  publication. 
In  "The  Theatre,"  of  June,  1880,  Mr. 
Button  Cook  had  an  article  on  Miss 
Ellen    Terry's     early    appearances,    in 

37 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 


which  he  made  a  statement  contradic- 
tory of  the  one  approved  by  Miss 
Terry,  his  words  being,  "  The  sis- 
ters (Kate  and  Ellen)  figured  together 
as  the  Princes  murdered  in  the  Tower 
by  Mr.  Charles  Kean  as  Richard  III. 
My  recollection  of  Miss  Ellen  Terry 
dates  from  her  impersonation  of  the 
little  Duke  of  York."  The  present 
performance  of  Miss  Mary  Anderson 
of  "The  Winter  s  ^ale  has  again  brought 
up  this  question,  and  Mr.  Cook's  state- 
ment has  been  repeated  by  Mr.  Moy 
Thomas  in  his  interesting  column  "  The 
Theatres,"  in  the  "  Daily  News." 
As  a  careful  examination  of  the  file  of 
the  Princess's  Play  Bills  in  the  British 
Museum  shows,  the  documentary  evi- 
dence is  completely  against  Mr.  Cook's 
statement.     Richard  the  ^hird  was  pro- 

■  ^7 


ELLEN    TE  RRT 

duced  at  the  Princess's  on  February 
20,  1854,  and  ran  nineteen  non-consec- 
utive nights  up  to  April  17th,  when  it 
expired  from  inaction.  The  following 
characters  were  performed  :  — 
King  Edward  the  Fourth  (Mr.  Gra- 
ham), Edward,  Prince  of  Wales  (Miss 
Maria  Ternan),  Richard,  Duke  of  York 
(Miss  Kate  Terry),  Richard,  Duke  of 
Gloster  (Mr.  Charles  Kean),  Henry, 
Earl  of  Richmond  (John  Ryder,  up 
to  March  27th,  and  March  31st  and 
to  end  of  the  run,  Walter  Lacy),  Lord 
Mayor  of  London  (Mr.  Terry),  Miss 
Heath,  Miss  Murray,  and  Mrs.  Wal- 
ter Lacy  playing  the  ladies*  part ; 
Miss  Ellen  Terry's  name  is  in  none 
of  the  nineteen  Bills,  while  Miss  Ter- 
nan's  and  Kate  Terry's  names  are  in 
each  Bill  for  ^he  Princes  Murdered  in 

39 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

the  Tower,  As  the  Bills  did  not  run  for 
weeks,  or  even  days,  without  alterations 
as  our  modern  programmes  do,  but  were 
reset  and  issued  as  fresh  Bills  for  each 
performance,  any  change  of  the  cast 
would  have  been  easily  made  had  such 
been  necessary,  as  indeed  it  was  made 
when  Walter  Lacy  took  the  part  of 
Richmond,  instead  of  John  Ryder. 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  a  gentle-i 
man  of  Mr.  Charles  Kean's  standing 
would  permit  the  published  Bills  to 
represent  Miss  Ternan  as  the  Prince  of  J 
Wales,  while  the  part  was  being  played 
by  someone  else.  Of  course,  in  the 
event  of  sudden  indisposition,  it  is  pos- 
sible that  Kate  Terry  took  Miss  Ter- 
nan's  part  for  a  night,  and  that  Ellen 
took  the  part  of  "  the  Little  Duke  of 
York,"  but  if  so  the  fact  would  have 

40 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 


been  remembered  either  by  Ellen 
Terry  or  some  member  of  her  family, 
and  so  communicated  to  Mr.  Pascoe 
for  his  Biography.  Mr.  Moy  Thomas 
supplements  Button  Cook's  statement 
by  adding  that  it  was  in  April  Mr. 
Cook  witnessed  Ellen  Terry  as  the 
"  Little  Duke  of  York."  If  so,  as  Rich- 
ard was  only  performed  in  April,  on 
Monday  the  3rd,  Friday  the  7th,  and 
Monday  the  17th,  the  question  is  nar- 
rowed down  considerably. 
Button  Cook's  statement  was  made 
in  1880,  over  twenty-six  years  after 
the  event.  If. he  did  not  take  a  note 
of  this  almost  unnoticeable  change 
of  cast  at  the  time,  it  is  marvellous 
how  so  small  an  incident,  out  of  so 
many,  could  have  impressed  itself  or 
be  impressed  upon  his   memory  so  as 

41 


ELLEN     T  ER  RT 

to  be  remembered  twenty-six  years 
afterwards. 

Miss  Ellen  Terry,  being  then  but  a 
child  a  little  over  five  years  of  age, 
cannot  herself  remember  the  incident, 
and  as  she  is  committed  to  her  first 
appearance  in  7^/ie  TVinters  T!ale^ 
Dutton  Cook*s  statement  lacks  cor- 
roboration, especially  in  the  face  of 
the  testimony  of  the  play-bills  them- 
selves. 

While  it  is  possible  that  Ellen  Terry 
appeared  for  one  night  in  conse- 
quence of  Miss  Ternan's  supposed 
sudden  indisposition,  it  is  also  pos- 
sible, nay  probable,  that  Mr.  Cook's 
memory  had  played  him  false  when 
trusting  to  recall  so  small  an  inci- 
dent twenty-six  years  after  it  occurred. 
The     point,     however,    is    interesting, 

42 


MISS  ELLEN  TERRY 

As  Juliet  in  "  Romeo  and  Juliet  " 


CO      cc^ec-^6        t'BC  «'» 


ELLEN    TER  RT 


and   probably  may  now    be    definitely 

settled. 

Yours  truly, 

George  Tawse. 

Belsize  Road,  London,    N.   W. 

I  naturally  consulted  the  fair  lady 
most  concerned  in  the  discussion, 
for,  as  she  herself  humourously  puts 
it,  "  fax  is  fax." 

This  is  her  reply  to  me,  dated  Sep- 
tember 26,  1887. 

Theatre  Royal,  Manchester. 
My  Dear  Clement  Scott, 

Mr.  Button  Cook*s  statement  was  in- 
accurate, that's  all!  I  didn't  contra- 
dict it,  although  asked  to  do  so  by  my 
father  at  the  time,  for  I  thought  it  of 
little,  if  of  any  interest. 

43 


ELLEN     TERRT 

The  very  first  time  I  ever  appeared  on 
any  stage  was  on  the  first  night  of  ^he 
Winter  s  ^ale,  at  the  Princess's  Thea- 
tre, with  dear  Charles  Kean.  As  for 
the  young  Princes,  —  them  unfortu- 
nate little  men,  I  never  played — not 
neither  of  them  —  there  ! 
What  a  cry  about  a  little  wool  i  It 's 
flattering  to  be  fussed  about,  but  "  Fax 
is  Fax  ! " 

I  hope  you  are  very  well  and  your  little 
girl  also.  I  am  very  well,  and  my  big 
girl  is  well,  and  I  am 

Yours  ever, 

E.  T. 
P,  S.  —  1  was  born  in  Coventry,  1848, 
and  was,  I  think,  about  seven  when  I 
played  In  I'he  Winter  s  ^ale. 

But  even  this  did  not  satisfy  the 
industrious    student     of     play-bills. 

4+ 


ELLEN     T  ER  RT 

Mr.  Tawse  returned  to  the  attack 
on  September  28,  1887,  and  brought 
out  some  more  interesting  facts  con- 
cerning the  first  appearance  not  only 
of  Ellen  Terry,  but  of  her  sister 
Kate  and  of  Mrs.   Kendal. 

Dear  Sir, 

Many  thanks  for  your  letter  of  the  26th, 
respecting  Miss  Ellen  Terry's  first  ap- 
pearance on  the  stage. 
Regarding  your  enquiry  as  to  the  Pan- 
tomime played  at  the  Princess's  the 
same  year  as  Richard  the  ^hird^  is 
there  not  a  mistake  in  saying  it  was 
"Bluff  King  Hal"? 
The  Pantomime  running  at  the  Prin- 
cess's concurrently  with  Richard  the 
^hird  was  Harlequin^  and  the  Miller 
and   his    Men^    and    it    ran    sixty-eight 

45 


ELLEN    TER  RT 

times,  ending  on  the  i8th  of  March, 
1854,  Miss  Kate  Terry  playing  the 
Fairy.  The  next  one  produced  on 
Boxing  Night,  1854,  was  Blue  Beard^ 
the  Great  Bashaw^  ^c,  Preciosa,  the 
Good  Fairy,  by  Miss  Kate  Terry 
(Ellen's  name  not  in  the  Bill).  This 
ran  on  till  March,  Miss  Kate  Terry's 
name,  however,  being  taken  out  on 
February  24,  1855,  and  Miss  Caroline 
Parkes  playing  the  Fairy  instead. 
There  was  a  Miss  Eliza  Terry  at  the 
Surrey  Theatre  at  this  time,  but  she 
was  another  woman. 
Respecting  first  appearances,  Mr.  Pas- 
coe,  in  his  notice  of  Kate  Terry,  is 
careful  not  to  fix  the  date  of  her  first 
appearance,  farther  than  it  was  at  the 
Princess's  under  Charles  Kean.  The 
earliest  date  he  mentions  is   February 

46 


B6  as:  Rfi  ap  Hji  «fc  5C  Pft    3»  «ft  i^jX  Hft    bC  «ft  5t    a?:  HP  aC    «P  af^  «R  WC 

ELLEN    TERRT 

9,  1852,  when  Kate  played  Arthur  in 
King  John.  But  I  have  a  Princess's  Bill 
dated  January  12,  1852,  with  her  as 
Robin,  page  to  Falstaff,  and  afterwards 
in  the  Pantomime.  Even  that  may  not 
be  her  earliest,  for  I  have  not  searched 
any  complete  file.  My  own  fairish 
collection,  however,  is  not  complete. 
Then  Mrs.  Kendal  :  Pascoe  says  Miss 
Robertson  appeared  in  1852,  at  the 
Marylebone  Theatre  as  the  Blind  Child 
in  The  Seven  Poor  Travellers.  1852  is 
a  printer's  error  for  1855,  ^^^  ^^^ 
Dickens*  story  was  not  published  until 
December,  1 854,  and  the  drama  was  pro- 
duced at  the  Marylebone  on  February 
26,  1855,  —  the  father,  mother, and  Tom 
the  dramatist,  along  with  Miss  Robert- 
son, all  in  the  piece  together.  I  have 
the  play-bill.     But  I  have  a  bill  nearly 

47 


ELLEN     TERR  T 

two  years  earlier  at  the  Marylebone 
with  Miss  Robertson  as  a  child  in  the 
cast.  I  communicated  this  to  Mrs. 
Kendal,  and  she  said  she  had  no  recollec- 
tion of  her  earlier  appearances.  She  had 
been  informed  of  them  partly  by  a 
note-book  of  her  father's,  and  partly 
by  the  recollections  of  E.  F.  Edgar,  a 
fellow-actor  of  the  time. 

Yours  truly, 

George  Tawse. 

P,S.  —  I  shall  feel  much  obliged  if  you 
will  kindly  let  me  know  Miss  Ellen 
Terry's  opinion  respecting  her  first 
appearance  on  the  stage,  and  after 
your  purposes  are  served,  I  should 
esteem  it  a  favour  if  you  will  kindly 
let  me  have  her  letter  (if  not  a  pri- 
vate one)  to  retain  in  connection  with 
this  matter. 

48 


MISS  ELLEN  TERRY 
As  Fair  Rcsatnund  in  "Becket  " 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

I  need  hardly  say  that  my  re- 
spected correspondent  did  not  get 
the  Ellen  Terry  letter.  It  is 
carefully  preserved  amongst  my  val- 
uable epistolary  archives,  which  in 
the  long  future  may  be  of  consider- 
able interest. 

The  loth  of  October,  1887, 
brought  me  another  note  from  Mr. 
Tav^se,  bristling  with  history  and 
play-bill  lore. 

Dear  Mr.  Scott, 

I  beg  to  return  the  portion  of  Miss 
Ellen  Terry's  letter  I  received  this 
morning.  I  have  given  a  hasty  turn 
over  to  my  Bills  (I  am,  however,  not 
rich  in  pantomimes),  but  can  find  no 
scent  of  a  Simple  Simon,     Does   Miss 

4  49 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

Terry  imply  that  the  pantomime  she 
appeared  in  was  a  Princess's  and  a 
Charles  Kean's  Pantomime  ?  If  so,  she 
is  certainly  mistaken  in  the  name. 
From  April,  1856,  her  first  appearance, 
to  August,  1859,  close  of  Charles 
Kean's  management,  there  were  only 
three  pantomimes:  1856,  Aladdin; 
1857,  White  Cat;  1858,  King  of  the 
Castle,  As  those  Bills  are  not  in  my 
collection  I  shall  look  at  the  Museum 
Bills.  But  as  I  suspect  Simple  Simon 
may  have  been  a  Surrey  or  new  sub- 
urban pantomime,  I  would  like  to 
know  whether  you  can  give  me  any 
more  definite  clue  than  she  gives  in 
her  letter,  so  that  I  may  search  with  a 
prospect  of  speedy  success.  I  assume 
the  panto  she  appeared  in  was  between 
April,    1856,  and  March,   1863,  when 

50 


ELLEN    TE  R  RT 


(Pascoe  says)  she  made  her  professional 

debut  at  the  Haymarket.     If  it  was  in 

the   provinces,   it   will    be    difficult   to 

trace. 

Yours  sincerely, 

George  Tawse. 

P.  S,  —  Pascoe  does  not  mention  the 
following  appearances  of  Ellen  Terry : 
October,  1856,  Puck  in  Midsummer 
Night's  Bream  ;  1858,  Easter  Monday, 
Faust  and  Marguerite  (she  did  not  play 
in  the  first  production  of  this  in  1854); 
October,  1858,  Arthur  in  King  John 
(this  I  think  Pascoe  does  mention) ; 
17th  November,  1858,  Fleance  in  Mac- 
beth^ not  mentioned  either  by  Pascoe 
or  Blanchard  in  "  Era  Almanack/*  In 
Kean's  Richard  the  Second^  The  Tempest^ 
King  Leary  Merchant  of  Venice^  Much 
Ado  About  Nothings   Henry    the  Fifths 

51 


ELLEN     TERR T 

and  Henry  the  Eighth,  which  closed  the 
list,  Ellen  Terry  had  no  part,  accord- 
ing to  my  bills.     . 

And  now  I  thought  I  would  turn 
to  one  of  the  greatest  living  author- 
ities on  the  subject,  —  my  ever- 
lamented  friend,  Edward  Leman 
Blanchard,  who  was  a  perfect  mine 
of  information,  as  anyone  can  see 
who  reads  his  Life,  —  a  book  that 
should  be  on  the  shelves  of  every 
dramatic  student  and  critic.  He  was 
a  playgoer  from  boyhood,  the  son 
of  an  actor,  —  the  celebrated  com- 
edian Blanchard,  —  and  a  dramatic 
critic  from  his  earliest  youth.  Here 
is  Blanchard's  reply  to  my  letter  : 


52 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

My  Dear  Scott, 

Pardon  the  delay  of  this  response  to 
your  enquiry  re  Ellen  Terry's  first 
appearance  on  the  stage,  but  I  have 
been  making  industrious  researches 
among  my  dusty  books  and  papers  for 
the  last  four  days.  At  last  I  am  able 
to  put  you  at  least  on  the  track  of 
Simple  Simon,  though  I  doubt  if  the 
clever  (and  still  young)  lady  who  must 
have  been  born  in  1843,  would  care  to 
have  the  date  divulged.  I  have  re- 
corded all  I  can  gather  on  the  accom- 
panying slip  of  paper,  and  if  you  can 
get  any  friend  in  Glasgow  to  look  at 
the  Glasgow  newspaper  file  for  Christ- 
mas, 1848  or  1849,  ^^'^  ^^^^  y°^  ^^^ 

'title  of  the  Glasgow  Theatre  Royal 
Pantomimes  for  those  years,  the  "  Mys 
Tery  "  will  be  solved  to  your  own  sat- 

53 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

isfaction.     I  have  not  been  able  to  find 

some   old    copies    of   the    "  Theatrical 

Times,"  I  once  had,  published  at  that 

period,  and  thus   have    no    record   of 

the   provincial    pantomimes    for   those 

dates. 

Yours  always  faithfully, 

E.  L.  Blanchard. 

In  Re  Ellen  Terry  : 

In  1848,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Terry  and  their 
two  daughters  were  engaged  by  John 
Alexander  for  the  Theatre  Royal,  Glas- 
gow. The  two  daughters  played  the 
Princes  in  Richard  the  Third,  and  the 
father  acted  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower, 
Mrs.  R.  H.  Wyndham  (who  I  think 
still  survives),  afterwards  of  the  Theatre 
Royal,  Edinburgh,  being  the  Lady  Anne. 
Simple  Simon  was  probably  the  panto- 
mime at  the  Glasgow   Theatre    Royal 

54 


Ml-S  ELLEN  TERRY 
As  Imc>cen  in  "  Cvmbeline 


ELLEN    TERRT 

that  year,  or  more  likely  the  following 
year,  1849.  ^^  might  have  been  1850, 
as  that  house  was  where  the  children 
acquired  their  early  stage  practice. 
John  Alexander,  the  Manager,  died 
December  15,  1851. 
The  Theatre  Royal,  Glasgow,  was 
burned  down  in  January,   1863. 

£.  L.  B. 

N,  B.  —  Mrs.  Wyndham  would  hardly 
be  likely  to  have  kept  more  than  the 
play-bills  recording  her  own  perform- 
ances, or  the  Glasgow  papers  would 
probably  be  the  best  reference  if  pan- 
tomime notices  were  then  written  at 
any  length  giving  cast  of  characters, 
etc. 

The  diligent  searcher  in  play-bills 
was  not,  however,  to  be  beaten,  and 

55 


ELLEN     TERR  T 

he  triumphantly  discovered  that 
Ellen  Terry  played  a  fairy  in  a 
Princess's  pantomime  on  Boxing 
Night,  1857. 

I  have  succeeded  in  tracing  Miss 
Ellen  Terry's  first  appearance  in  Pan- 
tomime. It  was  not  in  a  Panto  called 
Simple  Simon^  but  in  the  Panto  by  J.  M. 
Morton  played  at  the  Princess's,  and 
brought  out  on  December  26,  1857, 
called  Harlequin  and  the  White  Cat ;  or 
Blanchflower  and  Her  Fairy  Godmother^ 
and  which  ran  seventy-eight  times,  ex- 
piring on  March  27,  1858. 
The  following  were  some  of  the  char- 
acters :  — 

Simple  Simon  the  2326  (King  of  the  Ver- 
dant Islands),  Mr.  Paulo  (afterwards  clown) ; 
Count  Verygreenindeeds,  etc.,   Mr.  Collett ; 

56  " 


ELLEN     TERRT 

The  Princess  Blanchflower,  etc.,  Master  R. 
Hodsdon ;  Her  Royal  Nurse,  Mr.  Taylor ; 
The  White  Cat,  Miss  Kate  Terry. 
Immortals.  —  The  Fairy  Goldenstar  (no  con- 
nection with  the  Comet),  Miss  Ellen  Terry; 
The  Fairy  Topaz  (a  gem  of  the  first  water), 
Miss  Emily  Edwards ;  The  Fairy  Rosebud 
(a  young  lady  just  coming  out),  Miss  Clara 
Denvil ;  The  Fairy  Dragonetta  (not  invited 
to  stand  Godmother,  and  therefore  deter- 
mined not  to  stand  nonsense),  Miss  Amelia 
Smith. 

I  have  examined  all  the  Bills  ;  Ellen 
Terry's  name  appears  In  every  one  as 
Fairy  Godmother,  Amelia  Smith  al- 
ways as  Fairy  Dragonetta,  so  that  when 
Miss  Terry  took  Miss  Smith's  part 
(through  illness)  of  the  Bad  Fairy, 
someone  must  have  taken  Miss  Terry's 
part  of  the  Good  Fairy.     No  doubt  this 

57 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 


had  only  occurred  for  one  or  two 
nights,  and  the  parts  being  so  very  in- 
ferior it  would  not  be  deemed  neces- 
sary to  correct  the  Bills.  At  the  same 
time,  to  show  that  Charles  Kean  was  an 
exact  man,  in  December,  1855,  panto- 
mime Maid  and  the  Magpie,  Kate 
Terry,  who  played  Fairy  Paradisa,  fell 
ill  soon  after  the  piece  started,  and  Miss 
Rose  Leclerq's  name  was  immediately 
put  in  the  Bill,  in  consequence  of  Kate 
Terry's,  illness ;  within  a  fortnight  she 
recovered,  when  her  name  resumed  its 
place.  In  a  few  days  she  fell  ill  again, 
and  Miss  Rose  Leclerq's  name  was 
again  put  in,  and  remained  there  till 
the  end  of  the  run. 
There  can  be  no  doubt,  I  think,  that 
'The  White  Cat,  December,  1857,  was 
the    pantomime    in    which    our    Ellen 


ELLEN    TE  RRT 


Terry  made  a  success  of  the  Bad  Fairy. 
I  cannot  inform  you  whether  she  took 
a  part  in  the  pantomime  of  1858,  King 
of  the  Castle ;  because,  unfortunately,  the 
Museum  file  of  the  Princess's  play-bills 
ends  early  in  1858,  and  my  own  col- 
lection lacks  this  and  other  pantomime 
bills.  She  did  not  have  a  part  in  Alad- 
din or  the  Wonderful  Lamp^  in  Decem- 
ber,  1856. 

I  think  the  following  is  a  correct  list 
of  Ellen  Terry's  early  appearances  on 
the  stage,  all  at  the  Princess's  under 
the  Charles  Kean  management. 
April  28,  1856  (first  appearance),  Mam- 
illius  in  ^he  Winter  s  T^ale.  October  15, 
1856,  Puck  or  Robin  Goodfellow,  a 
Fairy  in  Midsummer  Night's  Dream;  De- 
cember 26,  1857,  the  Fairy  "  Golden 
Star "   in   'The   White   Cat   Pantomime, 

59 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

also  the  Fairy  Dragonetta,  when  Amelia 
Smith  was  ill.  April  5,  1858,  Karl 
in  Faust  and  Marguerite;  October 
1 8th,  Prince  Arthur  in  King  John; 
November  17th,  Fleance  in  Macbeth 
(revivals  and  for  a  short  time  only), 
Kean's  management  closed  August  29, 
1859.  Pascoe's  biography  infers  that 
Ellen  Terry  did  not  appear  on  the 
stage  again  until  March,  1863,  when  she 
made  her  professional  debut  at  the 
Hay  market. 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

George  Tawse. 
P,S. —  I  have  seen  a  Bill  of  King  of  the 
Castle^  and  Ellen  Terry's  name  is  not 
on  it,  neither  is  her  sister  Kate's. 

Dear  Mr.  Scott, 

I  find  I  have  unwittingly  led  you  into 

error  in  a  small  way  by  my  pencilled 

60 


MISS  ELLhX  TERRY 
As  Viola  in  "  Twelfth  Night  " 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

note  in  my  last  letter.  I  there  men- 
tioned that  Ellen  Terry  did  not  play 
in  Charles  Kean's  pantomime,  King  of 
the  Castle,  produced  December  28, 
1858;  but  I  made  a  mistake;  she 
did  play.  "  The  Genius  of  the  Jewels  " 
—  Miss  Ellen  Terry  —  is  at  least  on 
the  Bill  for  the  first,  second,  third,  and 
fourth  time.  As  the  Princess's  file  of 
Bills  in  the  British  Museum  is  incom- 
plete, I  called  on  a  friend  (a  fellow  play- 
bill worm),  and  saw  his  copy  of  King  of 
the  Castle,  where  her  name  does  not 
appear;  but  his  Bill  is  about  the  termina- 
tion of  the  run,  and  I  naturally  assumed 
she  had  not  been  in  it  at  all.  Since 
then  I  have  found  the  first  night 
Bill,  with  her  name  in  it  as  above, 
and  also  the  second,  third,  and  fourth 
nights. 

61 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

It  is  most  probable  that  l^he  White  Caty 
December,  1857,  and  King  of  the  Castle^ 
Xmas,  1858,  were  the  only  pantomimes 
in  which  she  ever  played.  These  were 
the  last  two  pantomimes  produced  by 
Charles  Kean,  and,  as  we  do  not  hear 
of  Ellen  Terry  at  any  other  theatre 
until  she  came  out  at  the  Haymarket 
in  1863,  the  assumption  is  a  fair  one. 
Yours  very  sincerely, 

George  Tawse. 

We  all  know  the  story  of  the 
young  Ellen  Terry's  marvellous 
"  shriek  "  in  a  play  called  Attar 
Gully  during  the  Albina  de  Rhona 
engagement  at  the  Royalty  Theatre 
—  the  scene  of  Charles  Wyndham  s 
debut  as  a  burlesque  actor,  for  he 
began    life  as  an  American   Army 

62 


ELLEN    TE  R  RT 

surgeon,  drifted  into  burlesque,  was 
fascinated  by  farce,  and  developed 
into  a  splendid  comedian. 
The  story  of  Ellen  Terry  appearing 
in  a  sensation  drama,  and  rushing 
upon  the  stage  enfolded  in  the 
deadly  coil  of  a  serpent,  and  par- 
alysing her  audience  by  her  as- 
sumed terror,  has  been  told  by 
herself  and  countless  biographers 
at  second  hand.  It  has,  however, 
never  been  better  told  than  by 
her  old  and  faithful  friend,  "Joe 
Knight,"  who  was  present  with  me 
on  that  memorable  occasion.  It 
was  an  incident,  —  little  more,  — 
but  neither  of  us  have  ever  for- 
gotten it. 

6^ 


ELLEN     TERRT 

But,  so  far  as  my  memory  is  con- 
cerned, I  shall  always  date  the 
Ellen  Terry  that  I  have  known, 
and  have  studiously  followed  since 
childhood,  from  the  Haymarket 
engagement  under  the  management 
of  Buckstone  (old  Bucky),  a  once 
famous  and  most  popular  actor ; 
but,  alas,  how  soon  forgotten! 
When  I  talk  to-day  of  Buckstone  or 
Benjamin  Webster  or  Compton  or 
Robson  or  Robert  Keeley,  or  the  he- 
roes of  the  past,  people  simply  stare 
and  shrug  their  shoulders.  When  I 
was  a  lad  I  liked  to  hear  playgoers 
discuss  the  favourites  of  their  time. 
But  nowadays  the  young  playgoer 
is  firmly  convinced  and   persuaded 


ELLEN     T  ER  RT 

that  the  stage  only  began  to  exist 
when  Henry  Irving  became  man- 
ager of  the  Lyceum  Theatre. 
They  consider  it  was  chaos  before 
that  auspicious  event,  and  crea- 
tion afterwards ;  but  we  who  were 
in  the  movement  before  the  name 
of  Henry  Irving  was  ever  heard  of 
can  prove  the  contrary  to  be  the 
real  truth. 

The  appearance  of  Ellen  Terry  as 
the  girl  in  The  Little  Treasure  [La 
Joie  de  la  Maison),  a  Hay  market 
play  once  connected  with  the  fame 
of  an  exceedingly  attractive  and 
beautiful  lady  at  the  same  theatre, 
called  Blanche  Fane,  first  introduces 
her    name    with    that   of   Edward 

5  Is 


ELLEN     TE  R  RT 

Askew  Sothern,  —  the  father  of 
three  clever  young  actors. 
I  can  hear  old  Buckstone  when  he 
first  saw  Ellen  Terry,  and  was  con- 
vinced of  her  talent  as  a  lovely 
girl,  suggesting,  in  his  comical  way. 
The  Little  Treasure  as  worthy  of 
production,  based  on  his  recollec- 
tions of  the  enormous  popularity 
of  Blanche  Fane,  the  idol  of  the 
young  men  of  her  day,  —  the  late 
fifties. 

So  Ellen  Terry  appeared  as  "The 
Little  Treasure"  to  the  Captain 
Maydenblush  of  the  celebrated  Lord 
Dundreary,  with  whom  she  was  as- 
sociated, also  in  Our  American  Cousin 
as  Georgiana  in  one  of  the   many 

66 


MISS  ELLEN  TLRRY 
As  Ellaline  i.i  "  Tlie  Amber  Heart 


ELLEN    TERRT 


revivals  of  this  phenomenally  suc- 
cessful play. 

One  of  Ellen  Terry's  biographers 
places  it  on  record  that  the  beauti- 
ful, fair-haired  girl  in  the  early 
sixties  at  the  Haymarket  disliked 
Edw^ard  Sothern.  There  is  no  ac- 
counting for  the  likes  or  dislikes 
of  fair  women.  At  any  rate  Ellen 
Terry  must  have  been  in  a  minority, 
for  the  elder  Sothern  was  more 
liked  by  women  of  his  time  of  all 
classes  and  of  all  ages  than  any  actor 
I  have  ever  known.  A  good  actor, 
a  mighty  Nimrod,  a  tall,  handsome 
fellow,  a  pronounced  humourist, 
Edward  Askew  Sothern  was  em- 
phatically a  lady-killer.      But  unfor- 

67  ' 


ELLEN     TERR  T 


tunately  the  fatally  foolish  biographer 
gives  a  reason  for  the  dislike  in  this 
instance.  It  was  that  Sothern  was 
such  a  determined  practical  joker. 
Now  if  there  was  one  particular 
quality  possessed  by  man  which 
would  appeal  to  Ellen  Terry  and 
the  Ellen  Terry  temperament,  it 
was  that  power  of  practical  joking. 
She  herself  has  hugged  that  same 
gift  from  girlhood  to  this  very  hour. 
If  ever  there  was  a  madcap  on  or 
off  the  stage  it  was,  and  is,  Ellen 
Terry.  Of  her  it  may  indeed  be 
said  she  was  born  to  speak  '*  all 
mirth  and  no  matter.''  I  have 
seen  her  sit  on  the  stage  in  a  seri- 
ous    play    and     literally    cry    with 

_ 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

laughing,  the  audience  mistaking 
her  fun  for  deep  emotion ;  and 
actors  have  told  me  that  in  most 
pathetic  scenes  she  has  suddenly 
been  attracted  by  the  humorous 
side  of  the  situation  and  almost 
made  them  "  dry  up,"  as  the  say^ 
ing  is. 

I  remember  that  Walter  Gordon,  a 
dear  old  friend  of  mine  who  was 
in  the  Haymarket  company  in  the 
days  of  Buckstone  and  Ned  Sothern, 
told  me  that  they  were  playing 
some  scene  connected  with  the 
legendary  days  of  King  Arthur. 
There  was  a  marvellous  stone,  of 
sacred  origin,  on  a  Saxon  altar, 
which    no   Knight    of  the    Round 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

Table  could  move  notwithstanding 
all  his  strength  and  heroism.  One 
after  another  of  these  strong  men 
approached  the  stone,  and  all  failed 
in  the  attempt  to  lift  it  or  even  ,| 
move  it  a  quarter  of  an  inch. 
Ellen  Terry  was  in  the  play,  and,  in 
one  of  her  madcap  moods,  she  ap- 
proached the  altar  and  the  sacred 
stone  (made  of  course  of  property 
stuff  to  resemble  granite),  and  tossed 
it  into  the  air  as  if  it  had  been  a 
child's  ball,  murmuring  to  the  au- 
dience with  childish  glee,  **  Why, 
it 's  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world." 
This  scene  must  have  occurred  in 
a  polyglot  play  called  Bucksto?ie 
at     Horne^     a     kind     of    revue     in 

70 


ELLEN    TERRT 

which  the  lively  young  lady  ap- 
peared as  Britannia. 
The  anecdote  of  Ellen  Terry  at 
a  straiofht-laced  and  sedate  dinner 
party,  suddenly  bounding  into  the 
room  dressed  as  Cupid,  to  shock 
propriety,  may  or  may  not  be  true. 
If  not  "  vero  ''  it  is  certainly  "  ben 
trovato,"  and  is  quoted  to  this  hour 
to  illustrate  the  temperament  of 
this  remarkable  woman. 
But  there  is  one  good  story  ascribed 
to  another  actress  that  is  quite  in 
the  Ellen  Terry  vein,  and  has,  I  am 
confident,  been  placed  on  the  wrong 
shoulders. 

A     somewhat    self-satisfied,     vain- 
glorious,  and   grumpy   actor    com- 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

plained  that  the  merry  actress 
continually  laughed  in  one  of  his 
most  important  scenes.  He  had 
not  the  courage  to  tell  her  his  ob- 
jections, so  he  wrote  her  a  letter  of 
heartbroken  complaint. 

Dear 


I  am  extremely  sorry  to  tell  you  that 
it  is  impossible  for  me  to  make  any 
effect  in  such  and  such  a  scene  if  you 
persist  in  laughing  at  me  on  the  stage, 
and  so  spoiling  the  situation.  May  I 
ask  you  to  change  your  attitude,  as  the 
scene  is  a  most  trying  one. 
Truly  yours. 


The  answer  was  very  direct  and  to 
the  point. 

72 


MISS  ELLEN   J  ERRV 
As  Eeatrice  in  "  Much  Ac^o  About  Notliing 


ELLEN     TERR T 

Dear 


You  are  quite  mistaken.  I  never 
laugh  at  you  on  the  stage.  I  wait  till 
I  get  home ! 

Yours  truly. 


The  early  professional  life  of  Ellen 
Terry  was,  to  the  great  disappoint- 
ment of  her  warmest  admirers,  fit- 
ful, wayward,  and  uncertain.  She 
would  appear,  and  then  mysteriously 
disappear  again,  alternately  beaming 
on  us,  and  then  flying  away  again 
like  some  beautiful  butterfly. 
One  of  her  biographers  attempts  to 
justify  this  erratic  proceeding  by  a 
quotation  from  Talma,  one  of  the 
greatest  French  actors,  but  one  also 

73 


ELLEN     TERRT 

who  talked  a  good  deal  of  inde- 
fensible nonsense  about  his  profes- 
sion. If  he  really  said  that  **  long 
spells  of  rest  and  abstinence''  from 
acting  were  to  be  recommended  in 
order  that  "  the  sympathy  may  not 
become  dulled  or  the  imagination 
impaired,"  he  spoke  words  that  are 
quite  aggravatingly  untrue.  In 
this  art,  as  indeed  in  all  others, 
practice,  and  practice  alone  makes 
perfect,  and  the  true  artist  never 
considers  that  the  perfection  line 
can  ever  be  over-reached. 
I  grant  that  to  continue  to  play  the 
same  part  for  hundreds  and  hun- 
dreds of  nights  on  a  stretch  may 
dull  the  faculties  and  become  ruin- 

74 


ELLEN    TE  RRT 


ous  to  the  imagination.  But  hard 
work,  and  as  much  of  it  as  possible, 
never  hurt  any  craftsman.  To  the 
real  artist,  life  is  too  short  to  allow 
us  to  spare  one  minute  in  trying  to 
attain  perfection.  Luckily,  in  this 
instance,  the  long  spells  of  leisure 
did  no  harm  to  this  particular  artist ; 
but  it  would  be  extremely  rash  to 
say  that  she  did  not  act  far  better 
when  she  got  into  regular  harness 
again.  She  was  fairly  back  in 
the  fold  when  she  gave  us  those 
most  beautiful  creations,  Portia  and 
Olivia.  I  agree  with  Tennyson 
that  "  unto  him  who  works  and 
feels  he  works  the  same  Grand 
Year  is  ever  at  the  doors." 


75 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 


Tom  Taylor  and  Charles  Reade 
had  always  been  firm  friends.  They 
collaborated  on  that  excellent  play, 
still  a  classic.  Masks  and  Faces,  so 
it  was  not  astonishing  that  the  fair 
protegee  of  Tom  Taylor  should 
find  herself,  sooner  or  later,  after 
once  more  playing  truant,  serving 
under  the  leadership  of  eccentric, 
clever,  and  pugnacious  Charles 
Reade. 

This  is  Charles  Reade's  description 
of  Ellen  Terry:  "Her  eyes  are 
pale,  her  nose  rather  long,  her 
mouth  nothing  particular,  com- 
plexion a  delicate  brick-dust,  her 
hair  rather  like  tow.  Yet  some- 
how she  is  beautiful.      Her  expres- 

76  ~ 


ELLEN     TERRT 

sion  kills  any  pretty  face  you  see 
beside  her.  Her  figure  is  lean  and 
bony  ;  her  hand  masculine  in  size 
and  form.  Yet  she  is  a  pattern 
of  fawn-like  grace.  Whether  in 
movement  or  repose,  grace  pervades 
the  hussy,'' 

I  don't  think  I  ever  met  such  a 
determined  and  obstinate  fighter 
as  Charles  Reade,  or  one  who, 
with  an  angelic  smile,  wrote  such 
alarmingly  scurrilous  letters. 
How  well  I  remember  the  opening 
of  the  old  Queen's  Theatre  in  Long 
Acre,  now  turned  into  a  carriage 
factory !  It  was  built  on  the  site 
of  the  old  St.  Martin's  Hall,  where 
John  Hullah,  a  musical  enthusiast, 

"7 


ELLEN    TERRT 

gave  monster  concerts  and  oratorios, 
and  had  some  wonderful  system 
for  teaching  the  art  in  a  popular 
form. 

Charles  Reade  opened  the  ball  with 
a  new  play  called  The  Double  Mar- 
riage^ which  was  founded  on  his 
own  novel,  White  Lies,  which  again 
was  founded  on  an  old  French 
melodrama  by  Maquet.  When 
this  fact  was  pointed  out  to  the 
angry  old  gentleman  by  Captain 
Alfred  Thompson,  who  knew  the 
French  stage  by  heart,  and  by  Leo- 
pold Lewis,  who  translated  The 
Bells  for  Irving,  and  when  in  the 
pages  of  a  clever  periodical,  "  The 
Mask,"  ample  quotations  were  given 


MISS  ELLEN  TERRY 
As  Cordelia  in  "  King  Lear" 


ELLEN    TE  R  RT 


from  the  French  melodrama  to 
prove  the  plagiarism,  then  the 
"  feathers  began  to  fly." 
It  was  a  hideous  "  ruction  "  whilst 
it  lasted,  and  of  course  Charles 
Reade  talked  about  his  honour  and 
his  dignity  as  a  public  writer  and 
a  Fellow  of  Magdalen  College,  Ox- 
ford, which  Fellowship  kept  him 
a  lifelong  bachelor,  and  threatened 
the  "  satirical  rogues "  with  all  the 
penalties  of  the  law. 
I  remember  that  on  that  evening 
I  sat  at  the  back  of  the  dress 
circle  with  my  old  friend  Charles 
Mathews  and  "  Mrs.  Charley," 
Arthur  Sketchley,  and  Palgrave 
Simpson.      We    all     rejoiced    that 

79 


ELLEN    T  E  RRT 

Ellen  Terry  was  to  come  back  to 
the  stage  to  play  the  heroine. 
Alfred  Wigan,  Charles  Wyndham, 
and  Lai  Brough  were  all  in  the 
cast,  and  they  were  soon  to  be 
joined  at  this  theatre  by  Johnnie 
Toole  and  those  then  very  promis- 
ing young  actors,  Henry  Irving 
and  Jack  Clayton,  —  the  adopted 
son  of  Palgrave  Simpson,  the  dram- 
atist. The  hit  of  the  evening 
was  unquestionably  made  by  Wynd- 
ham in  a  romantic  part,  but  the 
piece  proved  a  failure.  The  audi- 
ence hissed  it,  and  nearly  sent  irri- 
table Charles  Reade  into  a  fit ;  for 
he  was  intolerant  of  criticism,  either 
from  the  public  or  journalists. 

80 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

A  stop  gap  was  found  in  Tom 
Taylor's  Still  Waters  Run  Deep^ 
founded  on  a  novel  by  Charles  de 
Bernard.  I  suppose  I  was  a  here- 
tic, even  in  those  days.  I  never 
cared  for  Alfred  Wigan  as  John 
Mildmay.  Wyndham  has  since 
played  the  part  a  thousand  times 
better.  He  was  the  Hawksley  on 
this  occasion.  Mrs.  Alfred  Wigan, 
who  had  a  mania  for  society  and 
titled  people,  was  a  clever  actress, 
but  not  an  atom  like  Mrs.  Stern- 
hold,  though  it  was  rank  heresy  to 
say  so  at  that  time.  Still  I  never 
at  any  time  saw  Mrs.  John  Mild- 
may  better  acted  than  by  Ellen 
Terry.       I    recall    to    this    day    her 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

plaintive  parting  with  her  prig  of 
a  husband, —  she  all  poetry  and  im- 
agination, he  all  prose  and  matter 
of  fact. 

It  should  never  be  forgotten  that 
it  was  at  this  very  theatre,  and  under 
this  same  management,  that  Ellen 
Terry  first  met  and  acted  with 
Henry  Irving.  How  little  did 
either  of  them  know  that  in  a  few 
years'  time  they  would  be  associated 
in  the  great  art  work  of  their 
age,  and  that  they  would  go  down 
to  posterity  as  the  most  famous 
actor  and  actress  of  the  Victorian 
Era. 

It  is  said,  "  Coming  events  cast  their 
shadows  before,"   but  in    this    case 

82 


ELLEN     TE  R  RT 

it  was  the  very  faintest  possible 
shadow,  and  the  meeting  of  these 
distinguished  artists  took  place  in 
David  Garrick's  shameful  old  farce, 
or  travesty,  of  Shakespeare  which, 
I  regret  to  say,  still  holds  the  stage, 
called,  Katharine  and  Petruchio. 
I  have  not  much  recollection  of 
the  performance,  save  that  Ellen 
Terry  was  the  sweetest  shrew  ever 
seen,  and  that  it  seemed  barbaric 
to  crack  a  whip  in  her  presence,  or 
to  go  through  the  tomfoolery  of 
the  blackened  leg  of  mutton  and 
the  bonnet-boxes.  Irving  must 
have  been  angular,  and,  as  John 
Oxenford  said,  more  like  a  "  brig- 
and chief     than    an    ideal    Petru- 

_ 


ELLEN     TERRT 

chio.  The  true  and  the  new 
Katharine  and  Petruchio  were 
reserved,  years  after,  for  Ada  Rehan 
and  John  Drew.  Before  these 
brilHant  American  artists  came  to 
London,  we  had  never  seen  the 
Tafning  of  the  Shrew,  as  it  ought 
to  be  acted,  or  had  conceived  such 
a  Katharine  were  possible.  It 
was  a  revelation. 
During  one  of  her  spasmodic  re- 
turns to  the  stage,  I  have  a  vivid 
recollection  of  Ellen  Terry's  Phil- 
ippa  in  The  Wandering  Heir,  by 
Charles  Reade,  a  part  originally 
created  by  Mrs.  John  Wood.  It 
was  the  first  time  that  I  ever  saw 
the  delightful    actress    in   what  old 

84 


MISS  ELLEN  TERRY 
As  Lady  Macbeth  in  "  Madxfth 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

sta2:ers     used     to     call     *'  breeches 
parts/' 

Looking  back,  as  I  do,  through  the 
vista  of  the  past,  and  still  seeing 
Philippa  struggling  as  a  boy  to 
forget  she  is  really  a  woman,  with 
a  woman's  heart  and  impulse,  it  is 
not  unnatural  that  I  should  say  to 
myself,  *'  What  a  Lady  Ursula, 
Ellen  Terry  would  haye  made  !  " 
and  how  Mrs.  Hodgson  Burnett 
would  haye  rejoiced  had  she  the 
assistance  of  such  an  artist  for  Clo- 
rinda  Wildairs  in  her  Lady  of 
^ality, 

Ellen    Terry's    serious   stao-e    work 
really  began  when  she  was  engaged 
!    by  the  Bancrofts  to  play  Portia  in 

S5 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

Shakespeare's  Merchant  of  Venice 
at  —  of  all  theatres  of  the  world  — 
the  little  old  Prince  of  Wales  Thea- 
tre in  the  Tottenham  Court  Road, 
hitherto  dedicated  to  the  "teacup 
and  saucer  drama  "  and  Robertso- 
nian  comedies.  We  could  scarcely 
believe  our  ears  when  the  announce- 
ment was  made.  Shakespeare  in  a 
bandbox  !  that  was  the  comment. 
Sir  Squire  Bancroft  as  he  is  now,  I 
shall  always  consider  the  very  best 
manager  of  my  time.  He  has  an 
orderly  and  precise  mind  ;  he  is  a 
man  of  good  taste  and  rare  judg- 
ment, emphatically  a  long  and  level 
headed  man.  He  has  been  one  of 
the  very  few  of  my  time  who  was 

86 


ELLEN    TERRT 

able  to  retire  at  a  comparatively- 
early  age,  having  made  a  fortune 
by  his  own  and  his  clever  v^ife's 
endeavours. 

Bandbox  or  no  bandbox,  The 
Merchant  of  Venice  was  never  so 
superbly  set  on  the  stage,  not  even 
at  the  Lyceum,  as  it  was  in  the 
little  theatre  off  the  Tottenham 
Court  Road,  Bancroft's  tact  in 
anticipating  the  verdict  of  the 
public  in  plays  and  actors  was 
little  less  than  marvellous. 
It  was  he  who  selected  Ellen  Terry 
for  Portia,  the  most  beautiful  ever 
seen,  and  started  her  on  what 
may  be  called  her  serious  stage 
career. 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

Bancroft,  it  must  be  confessed,  had 
very  few  failures  indeed  to  place  to 
his  account.      This   superb   version 
of    The    Merchant    of  Venice   was 
certainly  one  of  them.      Not  even 
the  glorious  mounting   or  the  ex- 
quisite acting  of  Ellen  Terry  could 
save  it.      It  was  The  Merchant  oj 
Venice    without     a      Shylock,     for 
Charles   Coghlan  hopelessly    failed 
in   the    part.       The    ill-success    oi 
The    Merchant    of  Venice^    which 
Bancroft   accepted    with    his  usual 
calmness  and  philosophy,  has  always 
been  ascribed  to  the  extraordinarily 
tame    and    colourless    Shylock    of 
Coghlan,    a   "  teacup  and    saucer " 
performance,  if  ever  one  was  seen, 

88 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

And  yet,  as  I  have  recently  heard 
on  excellent  authority,  there  were 
some  excuses  for  the  actor.  Cogh- 
lan  did  not  want  to  play  Shylock 
at  all.  He  would  have  been  quite 
content  to  play  Antonio,  to  say 
some  older  actor,  such  as  Hermann 
Vezin ;  but  when  it  was  suggested 
that  George  Rignold,  a  junior  as  it 
were,  should  be  the  Shylock,  then 
Coghlan,  as  the  leading  man,  pro- 
tested, and  said  he  must  be  Shylock 
or  nothing. 

When  Ellen  Terry  played  Portia 
for  the  first  time,  she  was  in  the 
very  perfection  of  her  youth  and 
beauty.  She  made  a  superb  picture 
in  her  glorious  Venetian  costumes, 

89 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

and  she  moved  with  the  grace  and 
ease  of  a  fawn. 

Bulwer  (Lord)  Lytton,  the  drama- 
tist, is  the  "bete  noire  "  of  the  mod- 
ern superficial  critics.  They  rave 
at  him  whenever  he  is  produced ; 
they  scream  out  at  the  top  of  their 
voices  that  he  is  old-fashioned  ;  they 
babble  about  his  flashy  imitation 
of  poetry ;  and,  if  they  had  thei-r 
way,  they  would  condemn  him  to 
the  dust-bin.  And  yet  the  public, 
for  whom  plays  are  written,  the 
public  that  this  well  abused  drama- 
tist so  well  understood,  the  public 
that  likes  a  good  play  containing 
effective  scenes,  the  public  that 
probably  is  not  indifferent  to  flashy 

90 


MISS  ELLEN   TERRV 
As  Fair  Rosamund  in  "Becket"' 


<        ;        '    r    « 


ELLEN    TE  R  RT 


rhetoric  when  it  cannot  get  first 
class  poetry,  is  not  dismayed  when 
a  manager  produces  either  Money 
or  The  Lady  of  Lyons, 
But,  if  produced,  these  old  plays 
must  be  well  acted.  They  will 
not  stand  a  Henry  Irving  as  Claude 
Melnotte ;  but  they  were  delighted 
to  welcome  Charles  Fechter  as  the 
"  gardener's  son,"  flashy  rhetoric 
and  all. 

With  a  Marie  Bancroft  as  Lady 
Franklin,  and  a  George  Honey,  or 
Arthur  Cecil,  as  Graves  there  was 
no  lack  of  laughter,  whether  Money 
be  old-fashioned  or  not. 
It  fell  to  Ellen  Terry  to  keep  green 
the  memory  of  these  old  plays  that 

91 


ELLEN     TERRT 

delighted  our  fathers  who  were 
playgoers.  She  enacted  Clara 
Douglas  and  Pauline,  as  well  as 
they  have  been  ever  played  in  our 
time,  and  showed  us  that  the  stagi- 
ness  of  the  stagiest  of  old  plays  can 
be  eliminated  by  acting  so  sincere 
and  natural  as  that  of  Ellen  Terry. 
I  now  come  to  a  new  and  very  im- 
portant period  in  the  art  life  of  this 
remarkable  woman.  We  have  seen 
her  fitful,  uncertain  vagabond  life 
since  childhood,  —  here,  there,  and 
everywhere,  on  and  off  the  stage, 
the  idol  of  painters  and  the  artistic 
world  in  general.  We  have  seen 
.her  tempted  to  the  Bancroft  school, 
where,  according  to   her   own   ac- 

92 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

count,  she  intended  to  stay  for 
evermore;  but,  as  we  all  know, 
promises  such  as  these  are  like  the 
proverbial  pie-crust,  made  to  be 
broken,  especially  by  women  of 
this  unreliable  temperament.  We 
have  welcomed  her  on  the  tiny 
Bancroft  stage  in  her  second  won- 
derful performance,  that  of  Portia, 
—  as  lovely  a  picture  as  her  girl 
Hero  of  years  before. 
Another  artistic  manager  now 
claimed  the  services  of  Ellen  Terry. 
This  was  John  Hare,  whose  debut 
I  had  seen,  as  a  mere  boy,  when 
Marie  Wilton  first  became  man- 
ageress ;  and  Hare  had  been  loyal  to 
the  Bancroft  cause  ever  since.      It 

93 


ELLEN    TE  R  RT 

is  a  matter  of  stage  history  that 
John  Hare  was,  with  Marie  Wilton 
(Lady  Bancroft),  the  keystone  of 
the  success  of  the  Robertsonian 
comedies.  It  was  Hare  who  made 
the  success  in  Robertson's  first  pro- 
duction of  Society,  Such  perform- 
ances as  Sam  Gerridge  in  Caste, 
and  Beau  Farintosh  in  School,  had 
never  been  seen  before  on  the  Eng- 
lish stage,  and  are  never  likely  to 
be  seen  again. 

I  do  not  write  this  with  prejudice. 
There  are  certain  characters  that 
fit  men  and  women  like  kid  gloves. 
They  are  part  and  parcel  of  them- 
selves ;  they  are  seemingly  the  actual 
people  they  are  interpreting. 

94 


ELLEN    TERRT 

Amongst  such  I  may  mention  the 
Polly  Eccles  of  Marie  Bancroft, 
there  never  can  be  another  "  Polly  " 
like  that ;  the  Sam  Gerridge  of 
John  Hare,  —  well,  his  son  Gilbert 
is  an  excellent  artist,  he  's  a  veri- 
table chip  of  the  old  block,  but  still 
it  is  not  the  same  Sam  Gerridge ; 
the  Paula  Tanqueray  of  Mrs.  Pat- 
rick Campbell,  there  will  never  be 
another  of  that  exact  pattern  and 
design ;  the  Elder  Miss  Blossom 
of  Mrs.  Kendal,  —  a  creation  that 
no  other  woman  in  the  world  could 
displace ;  and,  of  course,  the  Rip 
Van  Winkle  of  Joseph  Jefferson. 
I  could  add  to  the  list,  but  this  will 
suffice  for  the  purpose  of  argument. 

95 


ELLEN     TER  R  T 

It  is  not  that  one  impression  ca: 
be  removed  by  another  impress 
one   reading    by    another    readmg, 
but  there   are    certain   artists    who 
defy   competition   in   certain  char- 
acters. 

I  am  often  told,  "  Oh,  there  are 
others  quite  as  good!  "  I  wish 
there  were.  I  should  like  to  see 
another  Mrs.  Keeley  and  another 
Frederic  Robson,  and  I  should 
dearly  love  the  young  men  and 
women  of  to-day  to  see  another 
Charles  Fechter,  — the  best  roman- 
tic actor  I  ever  saw. 
Well,  the  happy  family  that  had  so 
long  flourished  in  the  Tottenham 
Court    Road    Theatre     had    to  be 


7->    'y 


M15S  ELLEN  TERRY 
As  i^ueen  Katharine  in  "  King  Henry  VIH. 


c     < 
c     < 


•  «  o    c 


ELLEN     TERR  T 

broken  up  and  dispersed.  Bancroft 
and  Hare,  who  started  life  as  com- 
panions and  boys,  always  "  making 
up  "  and  dressing  in  the  same  room 
at  the  theatre,  were  married  and 
fathers  of  families. 
Both  were  fired  with  ambition. 
Bancroft  determined  to  become  a 
manager  on  a  grand  scale,  and  be- 
came lessee  of  the  historic  Hay- 
market.  John  Hare  thought  it 
high  time  also  that  he  should  be- 
come a  manager, —  the  apparent 
life-object  of  every  successful  actor. 
He,  therefore,  took  the  Court  The- 
atre, way  down  in  remote  Chelsea, 
—  a  suburban  little  bandbox  which 
had  once  been  a  dissenting  chapel 

"  97 


ELLEN     T  E  R  RT 

—  church  and  the  stage  once  more 
under  the  same  roof. 
John  Hare  pinned  his  faith  at  the 
outset  to  three  individuals.  First, 
Charles  Coghlan,  for  whose  art  and 
literary  talent  he  had  a  supreme 
admiration.  He  knew  that  Charles 
Coghlan  could  not  only  act,  but 
could  write  plays,  and  he  deter- 
mined he  would  exploit  his  friend 
in  the  dual  role  of  actor  and 
dramatist. 

His  second  choice  was  Charles 
Kelly  (Wardell),  who  promised  to 
be  one  of  the  best  artists  of  his  kind 
in  London.  He  had  been  an 
officer  in  a  crack  cavalry  regiment; 
he  was   extremely  well    educated  ; 

98 


ELLEN    TE  R  RT 


he  had  a  cultured  and  logical  mind  ; 
and  he  had  that  extraordinary  power 
of  "grip  "  that  so  few  Anglo-Saxon 
actors  possess.  He  reminded  one 
of  Dumaine  and  Arnold  Dupuis 
in  'France,  of  Charles  Thorne  in 
America,  and  of  John  Clayton  in 
Eneland.  At  one  time  Charles 
Kelly  threatened  to  be  the  best  of 
them  all. 

The  third  string  to  John  Hare's 
bow  in  his  new  venture  and  first 
experience  in  management  was 
Ellen  Terry,  who  married  the  sec- 
ond string  to  the  bow,  —  Charles 
Kelly   (Wardell). 

Her  first  marriage  was  an  artistic 
one,  —  George  F.  Watts,  the  cele- 

99 


ELLEN     T  E  RRT 

brated  painter  and  a  genius.  Her 
second  marriage  was  a  dramatic 
one,  —  Charles  Kelly,  the  officer- 
actor,  a  man  of  excellent  talent, 
of  firm  determination,  and  who 
could  argue  and  argue  well  on 
any  given  subject. 
For  a  time  things  did  not  prosper 
very  brightly  at  the  Court  Theatre, 
and  it  looked  as  if  John  Hare's 
experiment  would  be  doomed  to 
failure.  The  Charles  Coghlan 
play.  Brothers,  the  posthumous 
Lord  Lytton's  play.  The  House  of 
Darnley,  the  Victims  of  Tom  Tay- 
lor were  frozen  out.  The  only 
success  at  the  outset  was  made  by 
Ellen  Terry  as  Lilian  Vavasour  in 

lOO 


ELLEN     T  E  R  R  r 

New  Men  and  Old  Acres,  a  part 
originally  created  by  Madge  Rob- 
ertson (Mrs.  Kendal). 
Then  suddenly  John  Hare  was  in- 
spired. He  wanted  an  English  play, 
on  an  English  subject,  with  an  Eng- 
lish setting,  and  acted  by  the  best 
representatives  of  the  English  school. 
Suddenly  he  must  have  cried,  **  Eu- 
reka !  I  have  found  it !  "  [It  was 
Oliver  Goldsmith's  Vicar  of  Wake- 
field?[  A  happier  idea  could  not 
have  occurred  to  mortal  man.  We 
were  in  the  middle  of  a  seventeenth 
century  craze.  We  were  all  mad 
about  blue  china,  Chippendale 
chairs,  Sheraton  sideboards,  old 
spinets,   and  brass  fire-irons. 

ICI 


ELLEN    TER  RT 

George  du  Maurier,  with  his 
"  Punch "  pictures,  had  started 
the  fashion,  and  there  was  scarcely 
one  in  the  artistic  world  who  did 
not  in  their  own  home  and  belong- 
ings revert  with  joy  to  the  modes 
and  whims  of  their  great-grand- 
mothers. The  men  ransacked  the 
bric-a-brac  shops  for  last  cen- 
tury china,  clocks,  and  furniture ; 
the  women  appeared  wearing  the 
mob  caps,  bibs,  tuckers,  fichus,  and 
frills  of  their  ancestors. 
The  age  was  exactly  ripe  for  the 
Ficar  of  Wakefield,  and  John  Hare, 
with  his  keen  instinct,  pictured  in 
his  mind's  eye  an  ideal  "  Olivia" 
in  Ellen  Terry. 


I02 


MISS  Ei.LlX   lERRV 
As  Guinevere  in  "  King  Arthur  " 


ELLEN    TERRT 

John  Hare  was  right  ! 
Once  again,  he,  with  faultless  judg- 
ment, set  W.  G.  Wills  to  work  on 
a  dramatisation  of  the  immortal 
book  which  Oliver  Goldsmith  him- 
self never  destined  for  the  stage. 
It  was  a  happy  choice.  This  de- 
lightful Irishman  —  Wills  —  has 
given  the  stage  better  work  than  the 
majority  of  his  fellows.  His  friends 
could  consent  to  rest  his  reputation 
on  Charles  the  First,  Eugene  Ararriy 
Vanderdecken,  and  Olivia, 
It  is  the  sneering  fashion  of  to-day 
to  pooh-pooh  and  to  belittle  poor 
W.  G.  Wills,  as  Sheridan  Knowles 
and  Bulwer  Lytton  were  pooh- 
poohed    before   him  ;    but,    for   all 

103 


ELLEN     TERR  T 

that,  his  plays  will  live  when  the 
work  of  much  more  vaunted  dram- 
atists will  be  forgotten. 
The  excitement  of  John  Hare,  the 
manager,  who  had  determined  not 
to  act  himself  this  time,  but  to  de- 
vote himself  to  a  triumph  of  stage 
management,  became  infectious. 
It  was  caught  up  by  Marcus  Stone, 
the  Royal  Academician,  who  loved 
the  period,  by  Wills  the  dramatist, 
the  fellow-countryman  of  Oliver 
Goldsmith,  and  the  whole  com- 
pany, including  Ellen  Terry  and 
William  Terriss,  who,  as  Olivia  and 
young  Squire  Thornhill,  made  the 
great  and  abiding  successes  of  their 
artistic  lives. 

104 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 


I  once  thought  that  U Ami  Fritz 
of  Erckmann-Chatrian,  as  staged 
and  acted  at  the  Comedie  Fran- 
9aise  in  Paris,  was  the  most  perfect 
"  play  of  a  period,"  a  purely  pastoral 
and  idyllic  play,  that  had  ever  been 
seen  on  any  stage.  • 
John  Hare  went  "  one  better  "  with 
Olivia,  The  play  was  an  exact 
and  faithful  reproduction  of  one  of 
the  most  graceful  and  picturesque 
periods  of  Old  England. 
The  exact  period  of  the  Ficar  of 
Wakefield  might  have  had  its  dis- 
advantages :  there  were  no  rail- 
ways ;  gas  and  electric  light  were 
unknown  quantities  ;  there  were  no 
hurrying    or   scurrying,     no   bustle 

105 


ELLEN     T  ER RT 

or  scramble  ;  but,  dear  me,  what 
peace,  what  serenity,  what  dignity, 
what  supreme  love  of  God's  coun- 
try as  against  man's  town  ! 
It  was  this  exquisitely  calm  atmos- 
phere that  John  Hare  and  William 
G.  Wills  caught  so  happily.  It 
was  Old  England  in  its  most  love- 
able  attire,  —  the  Old  England 
of  pink-and-white  apple-blossoms, 
yellow  daffodils,  and  blue-bells  ; 
when  simplicity  had  not  been  de- 
stroyed by  steam  and  smoke  ;  the 
England  that  Ruskin  wrote  about 
and  that  poets  and  painters  love. 

A 

Olivia,  as  I  first  saw  it  at  the  Court 
Theatre,  is  a  memory  that  will 
never    die   whilst  life   lasts.      It    is 

ic6 


ELLEN    TE  R  RT 

one  of  the  most  precious  souvenirs 
in  my  collection.  I  did  not  quite 
like  the  Dr.  Primrose  selected  for 
the  Court  production,  before  Henry- 
Irving  ever  dreamed  of  playing  the 
part.  An  excellent  and  experienced 
actor  may  not  have  the  tenderness, 
the  parental  affection,  and  the  pas- 
toral simplicity  required  for  the 
Vicar  of  Wakefield,  At  that  time, 
if  John  Hare  himself  and  Charles 

\  Kelly  wilfully  refused  the  part,  if  I 
had  been  a  manager,  I  should  have 

^  given  it  to  Arthur  Cecil,  who 
had,  like  Rutland   Barrington,  the 

;    "  clergyman     tone,"    which     is    so 

1  essential  in  a  play  of  this  kind. 
But  words  fail  to  convey  an    ade- 

107 


ELLEN     TER R T 

quate  impression  of  the  original 
Olivia, —  the  spoiled  child  and  dar- 
ling of  the  English  home  as  por- 
trayed by  Ellen  Terry.  I  see  the 
idol  of  her  old  father's  heart. 
Vividly  and  clearly  is  presented  to 
my  memory  the  scene  where  Olivia, 
under  the  hypnotic  influence  of 
love,  bids  farewell  to  her  loved 
ones,  scattering  around  her  little 
treasures,  and  that  "  white  face  at 
the  window,"  when  "  Livvy "  is 
on  the  high  road  to  destruction. 
All  that  was  pathetic  enough ;  but 
the  dramatic  effect  was  bound  to 
follow,  and  it  came  with  vivid 
truth  in  the  great  scene  between 
Ellen  Terry  and  William    Terriss. 

io8 


MISS  ELLEN   lERRY 
As  Lucy  Ashton  in  "  Ravenswood' 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

At  that  time  both  actor  and  act- 
ress were  perfect  specimens  of 
manly  beauty  and  feminine  grace. 
Terriss  was  just  the  dare-devil, 
defiant,  creature,  handsome  to  a 
fault,  that  women  like  Olivia  love. 
He  looked  superb  in  his  fine 
clothes,  and  his  very  insolence  was 
fascinating  and  attractive. 
When  Olivia  struck  Squire  Thorn- 
hill  in  her  distraction  and  impotent 
rage,  an  audible  shudder  went 
through  the  audience.  It  was  all 
so  unsuspected.  But  the  truth  of 
it  was  shown  by  the  prolonged  and 
\  audible  ''  Oh !  "  that  accompanied  it. 
When  we  talk  of  the  Ellen  Terry 
manner,  and  her  indescribable  charm. 


109 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

where,  may  I  ask,  were  they  ever 

better    shown    than    in    the    scene 

where  OHvia  kisses  the  holly  from 

the  hedge  at  home,  and  then  hangs  it 

on  a  chair  and  dances  round  it  with 

childish  delight.       And  so  it  went 

on  from  perfection  to  perfection. 

For    me    there    will   be    only   one 

Olivia,  —  Ellen  Terry. 

Fate  willed  it  that  this  same  Olivia 

should  be  the  great  stepping-stone 

in  the  career   of   the  now  famous 

actress. 

Tihey    came    to    see    her ;    we    saw 

and   applauded  ;    she    conquered  — 

everybody. 

Henry  Irving,  by  one  of  his  acts  of 

dramatic  diplomacy,  had  somehow 

I  lO 


ELLEN    TERRT 

or  other  shaken  himself  clear  of 
the  Bateman  faction.  Into  the 
rights  or  wrongs  of  that  controversy- 
it  is  not  my  province  to  enter. 
We  must  never  expect  to  hear  the 
"  still  small  voice  of  gratitude  "  in 
any  walk  of  life,  least  of  all  in  the 
theatrical  profession,  whose  mem- 
bers are  notorious  for  calmly  and 
complacently  shaking  off  their 
obligations,  and  very  often  biting 
the  hand  that  once  fed  their  ambi- 
tion. At  least  I  have  found  it 
so,  and  I  can  often  sigh  with 
Wordsworth,  — 

"I've    heard    of  hearts    unkind,    kind 
deeds 
With  coldness  still  returning. 

1 1 1 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

Alas  !    the  Gratitude  of  men 
Hath  oftener  left  me  mourning." 

At  any  rate  old  "  Colonel ''  Bate- 
man  was  dead  and  buried ;  his 
widow,  who  succeeded  him  as  man- 
ager, was  conveniently  shelved ;  and 
Henry  Irving  became  manager  of 
the  Lyceum  Theatre. 
He  naturally  wanted  a  leading  lady, 
one  who  would  not  disturb  his 
triumphs,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
would  materially  assist  them,  one 
who  would  occupy  a  very  comfort- 
able throne  by  his  side  without 
combating  his  supremacy,  —  in  fact, 
a  beautiful,  talented,  popular,  amen- 
able Queen  to  sit  by  the  side  of  the 
ambitious  Lyceum  King. 

I  I  2 


ELLEN     T  E  R  RT 

He  could  not  have  discovered  a 
better  theatrical  consort  than  Ellen 
Terry.  Fate  willed  her  for  the 
part  she  had  to  play.  No  stroke 
of  diplomacy  was  more  sure  and 
convincing.  Macready  owed  much 
of  his  fame  to  Helen  Faucit.  Half 
the  success  of  Charles  Kean's  career 
was  made  by  his  talented  wife,  who 
had  cleverness,  but  no  beauty  to 
recommend  her. 

History  will  have  to  decide  in  the 
distant  future  how  much  of  Henry 
Irving's  success  was  due  at  the 
outset  of  his  managerial  career  to 
the  extraordinary  influence,  charm, 
and  fascination  of  Ellen  Terry. 
I   am  certain  of  one  thing,   that  a 

8  115 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

more  loyal  comrade,  no  actor-man- 
ager ever  had.  I  have  sometimes 
thought  that  v^hen  it  was  decreed 
from  the  Lyceum  Throne  that 
Ellen  Terry  was  to  play  Lady 
Macbeth  to  the  Master's  Macbeth, 
and  Queen  Katharine  to  the  new 
Cardinal  Wolsey,  and  various  other 
characters  within  the  conspicuous 
talent,  but  outside  the  peculiar 
temperament  of  the  actress,  that 
during  this  long  Lyceum  reign  she 
might  have  been  allowed  to  play 
Rosalind,  the  one  of  all  the  Shake- 
spearian heroines  whose  tempera- 
ment was  so  absolutely  pronounced 
in  Ellen  Terry. 
If  ever  there  was  a  born  Rosalind, 

114 


—  -v-k— «     k 


MISS  ELLEN  TERRY 
As  I<  >lanthe  in  "  King  Rene's  Daughter 


ELLEN    TE  R  RT 

it  was  Ellen  Terry,  and  I  should 
not  have  thought  it  would  have 
been  outside  any  managerial  policy 
to  engage  the  best  possible  stripling 
for  Orlando,  and  for  the  Lyceum 
manager  to  give  us  a  new,  a  true, 
and,  I  am  sure,  a  most  philosophic 
reading  of  Jacques. 
But,  alas!  As  Ton  Like  It  was 
never  on  the  Lyceum  list,  and  now 
it  is  too  late. 

Alluding  to  what  I  have  before 
referred  to  as  the  Ellen  Terry  tem- 
perament, which  in  my  humble 
judgment  is  too  pronounced  and 
sweet  for  Lady  Macbeth,  and  I  am 
certain  I  said  so,  I  can  recall  a 
most  interesting  discussion  we  had 


ELLEN     TERRT 

on  this  subject  soon  after  the  re- 
vival at  the  Lyceum,  when  Ellen 
Terry  succeeded  to  Lady  Macbeth 
in  place  of  Miss  Bateman  (Mrs. 
Crowe). 

I  remember  her  saying,  in  her 
generous,  emphatic  way,  — - 
*'You  have  hit  the  blot,  *an  empty 
barren  cry.'  '*  Indeed  it  was. 
"When  I  called  on  the  Spirits  to 
unsex  me,  I  acted  that  bit  just  as 
badly  as  anybody  could  act  any- 
thing. 

"  You  know  it  was  most  kind  of 
vou  to  suppose  that  I  could  act 
Lady  Macbeth.  You  wrote  from 
that  point  of  view  which  in  itself 
is  a  very  great  compliment. 
"  Ti6 


ELLEN     T  E  R  R  r 

"  For  my  own  part,  I  am  quite 
surprised  to  find  I  am  real/y  a  use- 
ful actress.  For  I  really  am." 
Of  course  I  laughed  at  the  idea 
that  anybody  in  the  wide  world 
could  urge  that  she  was  not,  and  I 
implored  her  to  go  on. 
"Well,"  said  Ellen  Terry,  with 
justifiable  sarcasm,  "  I  have  been 
able  to  get  through  with  such  parts 
as  Ophelia,  Olivia,  Beatrice,  Mar- 
garet, and  Lady  Macbeth,  and  my 
aim  is  usefulness  to  my  lovely  art 
and  to  Henry  Irving.  This  is  not 
a  very  high  ambition,  is  it  ?  But 
long  ago  I  gave  up  dreaming,  and 
I  think  I  see  things  as  they  are  — 
especially  see  myself  as  I  am,  alas  ! 

117 


ELLEN    TER  RT 

both  off  and  on  the  stage,  and  I 
only  aspire  to  help  a  little." 
Then  we  drifted  on  to  Ellen  Terry's 
conception  of  Lady  Macbeth,  and 
here  her  views  became  to  me 
pregnant    with    interest. 

"  Mind  you  though,"  she  said 
vivaciously,  and  with  intense  en- 
thusiasm, "  although  I  know  I 
cannot  do  what  I  want  to  do  in 
this  part,  I  don't  even  want  to  be 
*  a  fiend,'  and  cant  believe  for  a 
moment  that  Lady  Macbeth  did 
conceive  that  murder  —  that  one 
murder. 

"  Most  women,"  she  went  on, 
"  break  the  law  during  their  lives ; 
few  women  realise  the  consequences 

ii8 


ELLEN    TERRT 

of  what  they  do  to-day."  Again 
the  earnest  artist  returned  to  her 
own  reading  of  the  character. 
"  I  do  believe,"  she  said,  *'  that  at 
the  end  of  that  Banquet,  that  poor 
wretched  creature  was  brought 
through  agony  and  sin  to  repen- 
tance, and  was  forgiven.  Surely 
she  called  the  spirits  to  be  made 
bad,  because  she  knew  she  was  not 
so  very  bad  ?  " 

*'  But  was  Lady  Macbeth  good  ? "  I 
asked. 

"  No,  she  was  not  good,  but  not 
so  much  worse  than  many  women 
you  know." 

Away  she  broke  in  her  impetuous 
way,  and  darted  on  to  another  sub- 

119 


ELLEN    TERR  T 

ject,  after  we  had  discussed  what 
murders  a  woman  would  commit, 
for  child  or  lover,  a  subject  on 
which  the  actress  was  profoundly- 
interesting. 

"You  would  have  laughed  the 
other  night  though.  The  man  at 
the  side  put  the  paint  —  " 
Then  came  the  Ellen  Terry  shud- 
der, and  she  went  on  in  her  deep 
tragic  voice,  — 

"  T/ie  Blood !  On  my  hands,  and  in 
the  hurry  and  excitement  I  did  n't 
look ;  but  when  I  saw  it,  I  just 
burst  out  crying." 
That  of  course  is  the  Ellen  Terry 
temperament,  and  she  never  acted 
better.       After  a  mock  self-accusa- 

1 20 


MI5S  LLLEN  TERRY 
As  Catherine  Duval   in   "The   Dead   Heart' 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

tion,  all  in  the  vein  of  tragic- 
comedy,  she  went  on,  — 
"  You  say  I  can't  be  Lady  Mac- 
beth, whilst  all  the  time  you  see 
I  am  quite  as  bad." 
Immediately  I  dissented,  but  she 
went  on,  — 

"  Don't  have  me  hanged,  drawn, 
and  quartered  after  this.  You  are 
quite  right,  I  can't  play  Lady  Mac- 
beth ;  but  it 's  because  my  methods 
are  not  right,  and,  oh,  nothing  is 
right  about  it  yet.  To  be  consis- 
tent to  a  conviction  is  what  I  am 
going  to  try  for.'* 
Then  came  a  very  pretty  compli- 
ment, which  touched  me  very 
much.      "  It 's  good  of  you  to  have 

121 


ELLEN    T  E  R  RT 

*  let  me  down  easy ;  '  but  I  care 
most  for  what  you  think  than  be- 
cause you  say  it  to  others  in  print." 
Away  she  went  again  at  a  tangent 
about  the  shoes  of  Mrs.  Siddons. 
"  Was  it  not  nice  of  an  actress ;  she 
sent  me  Mrs.  Siddons'  shoes  !  —  not 
to  wear,  but  to  keep.  I  wish  I  could 
have  *  stood  in  'em.'  She  played 
Lady  Macbeth,  —  her  Lady  Mac- 
beth, not  Shakespeare's,  and  if  I 
could  I  would  have  done  hers,  for 
Shakespeare's  Lady  Macbeth  was  a 
fool   to   it." 

I    roared   with   laughter. 
"  But  at  the  same  time,"  she  went 
on,  "  I  don't  think  I  'd  even  care 
to  try  to  imitate  her  imitators." 

122 


ELLEN    TE  R  R  r 

I  mentioned  Helen  Faucit. 
**Ah!''  she  said  enthusiastically, 
"  I  wish  I  could  have  seen  Helen 
Faucit  in  the  part.  I  do  believe 
she  was  the  rightest,  although  not 
to  be  looked  at  by  the  side  of  the 
Siddons'  portrait,  as  a  single  efFec- 
h    tive  figure." 

The  career  of  Ellen  Terry  at  the 
Lyceum  has  been  one  long  triumph, 
and  it  is  only  fair  to  her  to  say 
that  she  has  made  as  many  friends 
in  America  as  in   England. 

(In  her  art  she  is,  above  all,  an  "  im- 
pressionist "  of  the  finest  order,  and 
so  she  has  been  recognised  by  the 
English-speaking  world. 
If  I  were  asked  to  give  an   order 

123 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

of  merit  in  connection  with  Ellen 
Terry's  Shakespearian  creations,  I 
should   classify   them  thus,  — 

1 .  Beatrice. 

2.  Portia. 

3.  Ophelia. 

And  for  the  rest,  — 

1 .  Olivia. 

2.  Camma. 

3.  Margaret. 

I  do  not  think  that  sufficient  credit 
was  ever  given  to  Ellen  Terry  for 
her  conspicuous  success  in  con- 
nection with  the  Lyceum  cam- 
paign. At  the  outset,  she  was 
quite  as  popular  as  Henry  Irving. 
In  fact  she  had  a  double  clientele. 

124 


ELLEN     TER  R  T 

The  clever  men  were  at  her  feet, 
notably  all  the  artists  and  musicians 
of  note,  and  she  was  the  positive 
idol  of  that  enthusiastic  creature 
known  in  America  as  the  "Matinee 
Girl." 

My  friend   William  Archer  is  in- 
clined to  snub  and  deride  this  young 
lady,  and  to   class  her  with   stage- 
struck  assistants  at  stores  and  sten- 
ographers ;   but  I  have  studied  her 
closely,  and  find  her  an  exception- 
ally cultured  and  delightfully  enthu- 
siastic creature.      Such  enthusiasms 
do  as  much  good  to  the  stage  as  to 
I  the  individual.      The  Matinee  Girl 
fcspends  her  pocket-money  on  flower 
Bgifts  for  her  idol,  male   or  female  ; 

B  125 


ELLEN    T  E  RRT 

she  is  an  excellent  client  to  the 
photographer ;  and  if  she  may  be 
classed  with  the  "  autograph  fiend," 
she  has  more  claim  on  the  patience 
of  popular  artists  than  most  people. 
We  have  hundreds  of  Matinee 
Girls  in  London,  though  they  are 
not  so  classified ;  they  attend  the 
theatre  as  devoutly  in  the  evening 
as  in  the  morning.  Such  as  these 
have  never  been  converted  from 
the  "  cultus  '*  of  Ellen  Terry. 
When  this  charming  creature  first 
joined  Henry  Irving  to  "build  an 
everlasting  name  "  for  the  Lyceum 
Theatre,  she  was  in  the  very  per- 
fection of  health,  grace,  and  beauty. 
She  was  the  ideal  picture  in  every 

126 


MISS  ELLEN  TERRY 
As  Nance  Oldfield  in  "Nance  OldfielJ' 


ELLEN    TE  RRT 

picture  presented  on  the  Lyceum 
stage. 

Certain  plays,  revived  for  her  sake, 
might  have  been  forgotten  save  for 
the  delightful  art  of  Ellen  Terry. 
One  I  may  name  in  particular,  the 
Charles  the  First  of  W.  G.  Wills. 
Henrietta  Maria,  the  ill-fated 
Queen,  had  been  fairly  played  be- 
fore, when  first  acted  under  the 
Bateman  regime;  but  nothing  more 
exquisitely  pathetic  was  ever  seen  on 
any  stage  than  the  parting  in  the 
last  act,  just  before  the  King  goes 
to  execution.  The  throb  in  her 
voice,  the  lovely  sense  of  maternity, 
the  tender  treatment  of  the  chil- 
dren, and  the  woman's  determina- 

127 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

tion  not  to  "  break  down "  when 
her  lord  and  master  was  going  to 
his  death,  —  are  things  that  abide 
for  ever  in  the  memory. 
This  parting  scene  is,  if  such  a  re- 
mark is  not  heretical,  even  better 
than  the  sad  parting  of  Olivia  be- 
fore she  leaves  the  loved  ones  in 
the  Vicarage  of  Wakefield,  dis- 
tributing her  trinkets  and  her  toys, 
kissing  them  all  between  her  sobs, 
and  seen  in  the  dim  evening,  pass- 
ing the  window  like  a  grey  shadow 
to  her  doom,  —  poor,  fate-haunted 
«  Liwy." 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  Charles 
the  First  play,  absolutely  improved, 
by  the  new  and  inspired  Henrietta 

128 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

Maria ;  and  her  own  Olivia  re- 
stored to  the  Lyceum  with  an 
Olivia  even  sweeter  and  more  love- 
able  than  the  old  clergyman's  child 
that  we  found  at  the  Court  Theatre, 
and  certainly  the  best  Vicar  of 
Wakefield  ever  seen,  in  Henry 
Irving.  For  there  were  plenty 
of  sta^e  versions  of  Oliver  Gold- 
smith's  immortal  romance  before 
the  gentle  and  genial  Irishman,  W. 
G.  Wills,  took  it  in  hand. 
There  are  at  least  three  plays  in 
which  Ellen  Terry  particularly  dis- 
tinguished herself  at  the  Lyceum 
that  are  sometimes  passed  over  in 
comparative  silence  by  her  critics. 
I  refer  to  lolanthe^  which  had  been 

9  129 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

previously  acted  in  other  versions 
such  as  King  Renes  Daughter  by- 
Mrs.  StirHng,  Mrs.  Charles  Kean, 
and  Helen  Faucit  (Lady  Martin), 
the  Amber  Heart  by  Alfred  Cal- 
mour,  in  v^hich  Ellen  Terry  was  at 
her  very  best,  and  Camma  in  the 
Cupy  by  the  Poet  Laureate,  Alfred 
Tennvson. 

Ellen  Terry  as  Camma,  aptly  real- 
ised the  poet's  lines,  — 

"  The  Lark  first  takes  the  sunlight  on 
his  wing, 
But  you,  twin  sister  of  the  morning 

sun, 
Forelead  the  Sun  !  " 

Who  that  ever  heard  it  can  forget 
the  pathos  of  Ellen  Terry  as  she 

130 


ELLEN     T E  R  RT 

parted  from  Sinnatus  and  delivered 
these  lovely  lines,  — 

"  He  is  gone  already  : 
W     Oh,  look  !  —  yon  grove  upon  the  moun- 
tain —  white 
P      In  the  sweet  moon,  as  with  a  lovelier 
snow ! 

But  what  a  blotch  of  blackness  under- 
neath I 

Sinnatus,    you    remember  —  yea,    you 
must  — 

That  there   three  years  ago,   the  vast 
vine-bowers 

Ran  to  the  summit  of  the  trees,  and 
dropt 

Their    streamers    earthward,   which    a 
breeze    of  May 

Took  ever  and  anon,  and  opened  out, 

The  purple  zone  of  hill  and  heaven  ; 
there 

131 


ELLEN     TERRY 

You   told    your   love ;    and,  like   the 

swaying  vines  — 
Yea,    with    our   eyes,   our    hearts,   our 

prophet  hopes. 
Let  in  the  happy  distance,  and  that  all 
But  cloudless    heaven  which  we    have 

found  together 
In  our  three  married  years  1    You  kissed 

me  there 
For  the  first  time.     Sinnatus,  kiss  me 

now  1 

I,  for  one,  shall  never  forget  the 
end  of  the  play,  with  the  libations 
poured  in  the  honour  of  Artemis, 
and  amidst  music  and  flowers  and 
processions,  faultless  in  colour,  and 
of  classic  pomp,  making  the  dull 
mind  live  in  another  age,  we  hear 
intoned,    with    strophe    and    anti- 

132 


MISS  ELLEN  TERRY 
As  Catlierine  Huebscher  in  "Madame  Sans  Gene 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

strophe  of  chanting  chorus,  the 
double  appeal  by  Camma  and  Syn- 
orix,  containing  as  it  does  the  most 
impassioned  poetry  of  the  play. 

Synorix,    O  Thou,  that  dost  inspire  the 

germ  with  life. 
The  child,  a  thread  within  the   house 

of  birth. 
And  give  him  limbs,  then  air,  and  send 

him  forth 
The  glory  of  his  father  —  thou  whose 

breath 
Is  balmy  wind  to  robe  our    hills  with 

grass. 
And  kindle  all  our  vales  with  myrtle 

blossom, 
And  roll  the  golden  oceans  of  our  grain 
And  sway  the  long  grape-bunches    of 

our  vines, 

133 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

And  fill  all  hearts  with  fatness,  and  the 

lust 
Of  plenty  —  make   me    happy   in   my 

marriage ! 

Chorus,    Artemis,    Artemis,    hear   him, 
Ionian  Artemis ! 

Camma.    O  Thou,  that  slayest  the  babe 

within  the  womb 
Or  in  the  being  born,  or  after  slayest  him 
As  boy  or  man  —  great  Goddess,  whose 

storm-voice 
Unsockets  the  strong  oak,  and  rears  his 

root 
Beyond  his  head,  and  strews  our  fruits, 

and  lays 
Our  golden  grain,  and  runs  to  sea  and 

makes  it 
Foam   over  all   the  fleeted  wealth   of 

kings, 

134 


ELLEN    TERRT 

And  peoples,  hear  ! 

Who  bringest  plague  and  fever,  whose 

quick  flash 
Smites  the  memorial  pillar  to  the  dust, 
Who  causes  the  safe  earth  to  shake  and 

gape, 
And   gulf  and   flatten    in    her  closing 

chasm 
Doomed  cities,  hear  ! 
Whose  lava-torrents  blast  and  blacken 

a  province 
To  a  cinder,  hear ! 
Whose  water-cataracts  find  a  realm  and 

leave  it 
A  waste  of  rock  and  ruin,  hear  !    I  call 

thee 
To  make  my  marriage  prosper  to  my 

wish. 
Chorus,    Artemis,    Artemis,    hear    her, 

Ephesian  Artemis ! 

135 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

But  Camma  has  drugged  the  mar- 
riage cup  with  deadly  poison,  and  it 
is  drained  by  both  the  bride  and 
bridegroom,  when  due  Ubation  has 
been  made  to  the  goddess  at  whose 
altar  stands  the  priestess  and  the 
tributary  King.  The  conclusion 
of  the  play  is  singularly  fine,  mag- 
nificent fi-om  a  scenic  point  of  view 
in  every  detail,  acted  from  first  to 
last  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  poem, 
and  charged  to  the  brim  with  the 
almost  extinguished  fire  of  tragic 
poetry. 

Camma,    Thou  hast  drunk   enough  to 

make  me  happy. 
Dost  thou  feel  the  love  I  bear  to  thee 
Glow  through  thy  veins  ? 

136 


ELLEN     T  ER  RT 

Synorix,  The  love  I  bear  to  thee 

Glows  through  my  veins  since   first  I 

looked  on  thee. 
But   wherefore    slur   the    perfect   cere- 
mony ? 
The    Sovereign    of    Galatia    weds    his 

Oueen. 
Let  all  be  done  to  the  fullest,  in  the 

sight 
Of  all  the  Gods.  {He  staggers.)   This  pain, 

what  is  it  ?  —  Again  ? 
I   had  a  touch  of  it  last  year  —  in  — 

Rome. 
Yes,  yes  ;    your   arm.     I  reel  beneath 

the  weight  of 
Utter  joy  —  this  all  too  happy  day  — 
Crown  —  Queen  at  once.     A  moment 

—  it  will  pass. 
O,  all  ye  Gods  !    Jupiter  !    Jupiter  ! 

{Falls  backzvard.') 

137 


ELLEN    TER  RT 

Camma.    Dost  thou  cry  out  upon  the 

Gods  of  Rome  ? 
Thou  art  Galatian  born.      Our  Artemis 
Has  vanquished  their  Diana. 

Synorix,    (^On  the  ground.)    I  am  poisoned. 
Let  her  not  fly. 

Camma,    Have  I  not  drunk  of  the  same 
cup  with  thee  ? 

Synorix.    Ay,   by  the   Gods !    She  too ! 

She  too  ! 
Murderous  mad-woman  !    I  pray    you 

Hft  me. 
And    make    me   walk    awhile,    I    have 

heard  these  poisons 
May  be  walked  down.    {Antonius  and  Pub- 

lius  raise  him  up.) 

My  feet  are  tons  of  lead, 
They  will   break  in  the  earth  —  I  am 
sinking  —  Hold  me  ! 

^^8 


MISS  ELL  EX  TERRY 
As  Catherine  Duval  in  "The  Dead  Heart" 


ELLEN     TERRT 


Let  me  alone!    {'^^^y  ^^^^^  ^''^'  ^^  ^^"^^ 

down  on  the  ground^ 

Too  late — thought  myself  wise — 
A  woman^s    dupe!   Antonius,  tell    the 

Senate 
I   have    been   most   true    to    Rome  — 

would  have  been  truer 
Xo    her  —  if — if — Thou  art    coming 

my  way,  too — 
Camma  !    Good-night !   {Dies.) 

Camma,   Same  way?   Crawl,  worm,  down 

thine  own  dark  hole 
To     the     lowest     Hell.       My    Lord 

Antonius, 
I  meant  thee  to  have  follov/ed  —  better 

thus. 
If  we  must  go    beneath    the  yoke  of 

Rome. 
Have  I  the  Crown  on  ?    I  will  go 

139 


ELLEN     TERR  T 

To  meet  him,   crowned  victor  of  my 

will. 
On  my  last  voyage  ;    but  the  wind  has 

failed  ; 
Growing  dark,  too,  but  light  enough  to 

row. 
Row  to  the  Blessed  Isles  !    the  Blessed 

Isles ! 
There,  league  on  league  of  ever-shining 

shores, 
Beneath  an  ever-rising  sun.     I  see  him. 
Why  comes  he  not  to  meet  me  ?     It  is 

the  crown  offends  him, 
And  my  hands  are  too  sleepy  to  lift  it 

off. 
Camma !    Camma  !    Sinnatus  !    Sinna- 

tus !      {Dies.) 

And  so  the  curtain  falls  upon  a 
double  death,  and  a  magnificent 
picture. 

140 


ELLEN    T  E  RRT 

I  said  at  the  time,  "  If  ever  there 
was  a  play  that  from  its  intrinsic 
merits  demanded  a  second,  if  not 
a  third,  visit,  it  is  The  Cup. 
At  present  the  landscape  of  Mr. 
W.  Telbin,  and  the  decorative 
splendour  of  Mr.  Hawes  Craven's 
Temple  of  Artemis  absorb  all  atten- 
tion. We  seem  to  see  before  us 
the  concentrated  essence  of  such 
fascinating  art  as  that  of  Sir  Fred- 
erick Leighton  and  Mr.  Alma 
Tadema  in  a  breathing  and  tan- 
gible form.  Not  only  do  the  grapes 
grow  before  us,  and  the  myrtles  blos- 
som, the  snow  mountains  change 
from  silver-white  at  daytime  to 
roseate     hues    at    dawn,    not    only 

141 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 

are  the  Pagan  ceremonies  acted 
before  us  with  a  reality  and  fidelity 
that  almost  bajffles  description,  but 
in  the  midst  of  all  this  scenic 
allurement  glide  the  classical  dra- 
peries of  Miss  Ellen  Terry,  who  is 
the  exact  representative  of  the 
period  she  enacts,  while  following 
her  we  find  the  eager  glances  of 
the  fate-haunted  Mr.  Irving.  The 
pictures  that  dwell  on  the  memory 
are  countless,  and  not  to  be  effaced 
in  spell  or  witchery  by  any  of  the 
most  vaunted  productions  of  the 
stage,  even  in  an  era  devoted  to 
archeology.  We  see,  as  we  travel 
back  through  this  enchanting  vista, 
the  first    meeting    of  Synorix   and 

142 


ELLEN     TE  R  RT 

Camma,  —  he  with  his  long  red 
hair  and  haunting  eyes,  his  weird, 
pale  face  and  swathes  of  leopard 
skins ;  she  with  her  grace  of 
movement,  unmatched  in  our  time, 
clad  in  a  drapery  seaweed  tinted, 
with  complexion  as  clear  as  in  one 
of  Sir  Frederick  Leighton's  classical 
studies,  and  with  every  pose  studied, 
but  still  natural. 

We  remember  Camma  as  she  re- 
clined on  the  low  couch  with  her 
harp,  moaning  about  her  husband's 
late-coming,  and  can  recall  the 
hungry  eyes  of  Synorix,  as  he 
drank  in  the  magic  of  her  pres- 
ence. All  was  good  here,  the  ten- 
derness of  the  woman,  the  wicked 

H3 


ELLEN     TERRT 

eagerness  of  her  lover,  the  quick, 
impulsive  energy  of  the  husband. 
Difficult  as  it  was  to  study  any- 
thing of  the  acting,  when  so  much 
had  to  be  seen,  still  it  was  felt  that 
Mr.  Irving,  Mr.  Terriss,  and  Miss 
Ellen  Terry  had  well  opened  the 
tragedy  long  before  the  first  curtain 
fell. 

There  were  time  and  opportunity, 
at  any  rate,  to  comprehend  the 
subtlety  of  Mr.  Irving's  expression 
in  that  long  soliloquy,  how  well  it 
was  broken  up,  and  how  face  ac- 
corded with  action  when  Sinnatus 
lay  dead,  and  the  frightened  Camma 
had  fled  to  the  sanctuary  of  the 
Temple.     With   the   first   act,  but 

144 


MISS  ELLEN  TERRY 
As  Clarisse  de  Maulu^on  in  "  Robi-sj^ierre 


ELLEN     TERRT 

little  fault  could  be  found.  The 
fastidious  amongst  the  audience, 
who  complained  of  dulness  and 
want  of  action,  possibly  forgot 
that  whilst  their  eyes  were  feast- 
ing on  the  scenery,  their  ears  were 
closed  to  the  poetry,  and  on  another 
visit  will  confess  how  much  mean- 
ing and  study  were  at  the  first 
blush  lost  to  them.  With  the  aid 
of  the  text,  the  beauties  hidden  for 
the  moment  will  reappear. 
As  for  the  second  act,  with  its 
groupings,  its  grace,  its  centre 
figures  and  .surroundings,  its  hymns 
to  Artemis,  its  chants  and  proces- 
sions, we  are  inclined  to  doubt  if 
the  Stage  has  ever  given  to  educated 

lo  145 


ELLEN     T  ERRT 


tastes  so  rare  a  treat.  In  the  old 
days,  such  pictures  might  have 
been  caviare  to  the  general  public, 
but  the  public  at  the  Lyceum 
is  one  of  culture  and  a  very  high 
order  of  intelligence.  Such  poems 
are  necessarily  for  the  fastidious 
and  the  elegant  in  mind  and  schol- 
arship ;  but  granted  the  right  of 
the  Stage  to  demand  such  poetic 
studies,  it  would  be  impossible  for 
modern  scenic  art  to  give  them 
more  splendour  and  completeness. 
iEsthetic  tastes  have  had  their  nec- 
essary ridicule  and  banter,  for  every- 
thing that  is  affected  is  hateful  to 
the  ordinary  English  nature  ;  but 
here,  in  this  Temple  of   Artemis, 

146 


ELLEN    T E  R  RT 


when  Miss  Ellen  Terry,  veiled  as 
the  Galatian  priestess,  stands  by  the 
incense-bearing  tripod,  and  Mr. 
Henry  Irving,  robed  in  the  scarlet 
of  Rome's  tributary  King,  comes  to 
demand  his  anxiously  expected 
bride,  there  is  an  aiming  at  the 
beautiful  and  thorough,  most  cred- 
itable in  itself  and  distinctly  worthy 
of  respect. 

But,  as  I  have  said  before,  and  I 
shall  never  cease  to  voice  the  same 
opinion,  there  is  one  Shakesperian 
heroine,  one  of  the  most  enchant- 
ing, that  should  have  been  added  to 
the  long  list  of  Ellen  Terry's  tri- 
umphs. To  her  ideal  Ophelia,  her 
ideal    Portia,    her     ideal     Beatrice, 

147 


ELLEN     T  E  R  RT 

should  have  been  added  Rosalind. 
If  ever  an  actress  lived  who  had 
the  Rosalind  temperament,  it  was 
Ellen  Terry.  The  failure  to 
mount  ^s  You  Like  It  at  the 
Lyceum,  with  such  a  Rosalind  at 
hand,  is  about  the  only  "lost  chord" 
that  I  can  recall  in  a  delightful  dra- 
matic harmony. 

All  through  her  career  at  the  Ly- 
ceum, Ellen  Terry  has  been  loyal 
to  the  core,  and  enthusiastic  in  her 
endeavour  to  assist  the  art  scheme 
of  her  gifted  partner. 
If  I  cannot  follow  this  artist  through 
the  list  of  plays  and  style  of  art  iden- 
tified with  Rejane,  I  must  be  ex- 
cused.      I   do    not    know    her    or 

148 


ELLEN    T  ERRT 

recognise  her  as  Madame  Sans  Gene 
or  even  as  the  mother  in  Robespierre, 
It  is  the  first  where  an  excuse  has 
to  be  found  for  stage  salacity ;  it 
is  the  last  where  we  discuss  the 
details  of  a  nobler,  more  energis- 
ing, and  loftier  art. 
I  now  regretfully  take  leave  of  an 
enchanting  subject.  In  all  our 
careers,  artistic  or  otherwise,  we 
who  are  in  earnest,  and  speak  our 
mind  in  the  cause  of  art,  have  our 
ups  and  downs.  Sometimes,  try  to 
avoid  it  as  much  as  we  may,  there 
is  much,  very  much  more  than  the 
**  rift  within  the  lute." 
i\t  any  rate,  among  my  most  trea- 
sured letters  I  preserve  one  written 

149 


ELLEN     T  ER R T 

to  me  on  the  eve  of  my  departure 
on  a  journey  round  the  world  in 
1892. 

10   October,  1892. 
22  Barkston  Gardens,  Earl's  Court,  S.  W. 

I  send  this  —  which  wants  no  answer, 

—  to  say  I  much  hope  you  are  not 
going  away  because  you  are   really  ill, 

—  and  to  wish  you  every  good  thing  on 
your  journey.  Will  you  take  me  to 
Japan  ?  !  !  !  Oh !  I  want  to  go  there. 
By  —  Jingo  !  I  1 1  1 1  You  *11  be  missed 
here.  I  may  chance  to  see  you  be- 
fore you  start,  but,  if  not,  I  pray  God 
be  with  you  and  God  Bless  You. 

Yours  affectionately, 

Ellen  Terry. 
Monday. 


150 


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